


I’m sorry for ruining everything

by yzerman2lidstrom



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: "Modern AU", Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24669334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yzerman2lidstrom/pseuds/yzerman2lidstrom
Summary: El and Mike have been together since middle school and were the perfect couple for the most part. The whole party is in college together with Mike/El sharing an apartment, Lucas/Max sharing an apartment, and Dustin/Will also being roommates.  One night though El catches an odd text on Mike’s phone from a girl and her heart sank.  Was Mike unfaithful? Or was this all one big misunderstanding?
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers & Dustin Henderson & Lucas Sinclair & Mike Wheeler, Will Byers & Eleven | Jane & Dustin Henderson & Maxine Mayfield & Lucas Sinclair & Mike Wheeler
Comments: 25
Kudos: 34





	1. The Message

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually my first ever attempt at writing a fic so be gentle with the comments (I am kidding of course, I would welcome any criticism that could help me improve it). I read a similar story a while back about how someone thought their boyfriend was cheating but it was a misunderstanding, so I got inspiration from that. Hopefully some of you will enjoy this.

It was a normal early October day in Bloomington, Indiana. Mike and El were getting ready for bed on a random uneventful Thursday evening. El, was in her junior year studying psychology as she wanted to help people out of rough situations since she herself had a rough childhood. Because of the way her Major was set up during junior and senior year, she had most Fridays class free so she was able to get a lot of her work done on those Fridays. Mike on the other hand loved technology and was president of the AV club in middle school and high school and pursued studying Electrical Engineering where he was also in his junior year. Unfortunately for him, because he was in Electrical Engineering, that meant his Fridays up until around 3pm were spent doing lab work and he could not spend the day studying with the love of his life, El. Dustin also shared his same major and they more or less kept the same class schedule so he texted him about the game plan for tomorrow as they were for the most part lab partners. The whole party of 6 (Mike, El, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Will) all went to the same college.

The Party from Hawkins, Indiana all decided that they could never be apart from each other during high school so they made an effort to all go to the same college. They discussed it at length and settled on going to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana as it was only a couple hours away from Hawkins but far enough away that they can all be independent of their families. Will and Dustin were single in the group. Dustin had a string of a few girlfriends throughout middle and high school but none of them were serious or lasted longer than a few weeks. Will for his part was not interested in girls and eventually in 11th grade came out first to his stepsister, El (Joyce and Hopper reconnected shortly after El moved to Hawkins and soon after officially got together), then his best friend Mike, and eventually the rest of the party. Unfortunately for him the dating pool for him was slim to none in small town America so he is hoping a college town would be better suited for him. No one thought any less of Will and were actually happy that he could be himself around them when he did decide to come out. Lucas and Max were on/off again boyfriends where they would break up over petty fights and get back together days later until Junior year of high school where they finally decided to cut the crap and either be together or not because they were constantly surrounded by what was probably the “perfect couple” in Mike and El throughout their entire relationship. They decided to stick together after all that they have been through. Mike and El started dating in 8th grade as boyfriend and girlfriend. Despite Mike being constantly teased by his friends, he was as happy as can be because he liked El and liked spending time with her and was happy that she appeared to like him back. When they first came to college, Lucas and Mike roomed together, Dustin and Will also roomed together, and Max and El roomed together. After freshman year they decided to get apartments so naturally Mike and El decided to get an apartment together, so did Max and Lucas, leaving Dustin and Will who were single still to be roommates again. Those same living arrangements continue to this day in their fall semester of Junior year.

_(Now for even more backstory)_

* * *

\--- a little over 7 years ago---

Mike and El first met before the start of 8th grade for them all. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will were eating lunch at Benny’s, a popular diner in their small town of Hawkins, before their last DnD game session before the school year started. It was a hot and humid late August day in Indiana and the boys biked to the restaurant. The sun was shining and it was the last chance to spend a lot of time enjoying the weather before school started and eventually the weather got cool, so naturally the gang decided to go to Mike’s basement and wrap up their latest campaign. The boys were sitting in a booth along the wall of the diner, able to look out the window but mainly they were focused on eating and preparing for their game. They were eating lunch when Lucas brought up, “So, are you guys ready for school to start tomorrow?”. A collective sigh from the group then followed. For the most part the party (as they referred to themselves) kept to themselves and enjoyed each other but make no mistake, they were, for lack of a better term, the biggest nerds at school. Mike then responded with, “Why would we be? Everyone else hates us and who knows what kind of teasing Troy and his buddies have in store for us…”. Lucas came back with, “Well you don’t know Mike, maybe we will make more friends this year, who knows maybe we will even get girlfriends finally!” This was met with a laugh from Mike and Dustin, while Will sat there quietly looking at his friends laughing. Dustin said, “Yea, us, the biggest losers in Hawkins with girlfriends…” “you never know” Lucas said. 

Little did Mike know that when he got up to leave the restaurant his whole life would change. As the gang got up and left their booth ready to bike back to the Wheeler’s basement, Mike is leading the way with Will following closely behind, and Dustin and Lucas arguing in the back about the campaign they are about to go finish. Mike turns around to tell them to shut up as he is pushing the door open, which causes him to miss a young girl around their age with short curly hair who happens to be standing right in front of the door. Mike opens the door which in turn causes the girl to fall back as she was pushed backwards. Mike immediately things “crap…” and runs to help her up. As he grabs her hand and helps her up Mike can’t help but notice how soft her hand was…but he tells himself to stop with those thoughts…and he asks her “are you okay?”. The girl responds with a “yea, just a little shaken but nothing hurts or anything”. “Good!” Mike says. Mike notices that the girl is around their age but he has not seen her ever at school. Hawkins is a small enough town where the entire class at least knows everyone’s names so he asked her “what is your name?” The girl responds with “El”. Mike being a little confused thinking of the letter “L” does not want to be rude so he goes with it (he actually thinks it’s kind of adorable but he would not admit that to a girl he just met). “Hi El, I’m Mike…and…um…I’m sorry for knocking you over”. El for her part smiles back at him and says “nice to meet you Mike!” (and Mike for his part feels butterflies in his stomach because as he gets a better look at her and the fact that she is smiling at him, he actually starts to think she is pretty, really pretty!). He then asks her “so are you from around here?”. El responds with “um…I actually just moved here last week…my dad is from here but we lived in New York. He got an offer to come back home as the chief of police so he took it and moved me here with him.” Mike responded with “cool, sucks that you had to leave a big city like New York and move to this crappy town”. “I actually kind of like how quiet it is here” she said. 

At this point his three friends are staring at him as Mike has completely forgotten their existence and is completely immersed in his conversation with El. Dustin turns to Lucas and asks, “What is going on here? He just knocked over this girl and they have been talking for like a few minutes…” “Can’t you see our boy is in love?” Lucas responded. Will and Dustin both chuckled at that and realized the look on Mikes face where he is slightly blushing and smiling as he talks to this random girl they have never seen. “This is like the beginning of one of those chick flicks where you meet someone by some weird thing like knocking them down when opening a door and then before you know it you are deep in love…” Dustin stated. “Since when do you know so much about the plot of rom-com’s Dustin?” Lucas said. “No comment…” Dustin stated quickly (also he is ignoring the fact that Lucas used the term “rom-com” to avoid any further discussion) and they all continued to watch Mike. 

Mike for his part just could not take his eyes off of El, he then asked her “so…are you going to school here then?” “Yea I actually start the 8th grade tomorrow…its why we moved last week and not any later” El said. Mike could not hide the smile on his face for some reason (he just could not help himself) and said “That’s great, I am also starting 8th grade tomorrow, maybe I will see you around then?” El smiled back at him and said, “Yea! That would be great…Listen I have to pick up this food my dad ordered for us inside and get back to the car where he is waiting. I will see you tomorrow Mike!”. Mike smiled back at her and said “sorry once again for knocking you over…” to which she simply smiled back at him while she walked into Benny’s. If Mike did not know any better he could almost hear the sound of excitement in her voice but he knew that deep down there was no way a girl this pretty would ever be excited to see him tomorrow, at least not until she finds out what big losers him and his friends are at school, but at least he can enjoy this feeling in the moment. 

Unfortunately for Mike, once El went inside and he snapped out of his daze he turned and saw his friends standing there with the biggest smirks he has ever seen on them and simply said “not a word!…lets go finish our campaign.” They eventually rode off and El did make it a point to see Mike that next day. Eventually he noticed that she did not care that him and his friends were the biggest nerds ever, and eventually became a member of their party. Another girl who also started that year at their school, a skateboarder named Max caught the eye of Lucas and Dustin who thought if Mike could befriend a new girl so could they. Eventually it was obvious to the party that Mike and El clearly liked each other so eventually a few months later in December of 8th grade Mike finally got the courage to ask El to the snowball (some lame school dance as he thought) and she gladly accepted, they shared their first kiss and they were boyfriend and girlfriend ever since. Lucas also asked Max to the same dance and a similar story happened there. Mike and El have been together ever since, of course having some minor disagreements here and there (including one where Mike was threatened by El’s Dad into spending less time with her where they came up with some lame sick grandma line that El was clearly not buying) but nothing too serious that they could not overcome _(until now I suppose…but we will get to that in a bit)._

* * *

\---Present day---

As Mike and El get ready for school for Friday (tomorrow) Mike lets El know that he is heading into the shower before he is going to sleep. El says okay and heads to bed. They share a decent one bedroom apartment in Bloomington, Indiana about a couple miles from campus where they (and all their friends) go to school. After freshman year they decided that they wanted to just be together so they have now been living together for over a year as they finish up school, and as far as they are concerned they don’t see themselves not living together at any point after this either. El heads over to their bed and notices Mike’s phone in the charger has a quick Buzz and a notification bell that went off. El wanted to check since it could be something important and she wanted to let Mike know before he started his shower if that was the case. El knows that Mike does not have a lock on his phone because as he put it “its easier to use my phone all the time and besides why do I care if you or my friends see what I have on it, it’s not like I have anything to hide?”. She checks it and as she is reading it she notices the name on the text, it is from a girl named “Nicole H.”… _(Okay we probably need some backstory to help explain some things here)_

* * *

\---One week ago---

Mike had recently helped his sister out with a school project. Holly was entering high school and was making a video with a friend of hers for a class. She called her brother up since he is after all the resident nerd of the family and asked if he would help her our with editing since she had no idea what to do and he after all was president of the AV club at her age. Mike obviously thought nothing of it since it is his sister and despite her being annoying sometimes, he loves her and would do anything to help her out. Mike edited their video early last week and the class loved their video so her and her partner wanted to thank Mike for helping them out by treating him to a dinner at the fanciest place in Hawkins, Enzo’s. Mike agreed and said he can drive up to Hawkins next Friday if that works for them. It would have to be after his labs end at 3pm plus the two hour drive so Mike said 7pm should work to be safe. He would also drive back at night and be back to see El around 11pm hopefully, because god forbid he misses out on spending time with the girl he loves and spends it staying at his house where his parents constantly fight even though he does not mind spending time with his sister. 

* * *

\---One day ago---

Back in Hawkins, Holly was hanging out with her friend Nicole, who she worked on the video project with. She asked Holly if they were still on for their dinner to thank her older brother and Holly responded with “We don’t have to thank him I don’t know why we have to go 50/50 each on a dinner for my brother, its his job to help as my older brother” to which Nicole responded with, “It is rude to not thank someone for spending time to help us, and besides he is not my brother so he was not obligated to help me too…by the way can you send me his number so I can send him my address so he can pick me up with you to go eat?”…”sure just don’t expect him to respond much if at all”, Holly said. 

* * *

\---Present day---

El is staring at Mike’s phone and curiosity is getting to her…she pulls up his message and see’s the message that caused the notification on his phone and she read it and her heart sank. The message stated “Hey just checking to see if we are still on for tomorrow night? You are picking me up right?” followed by a smiley face emoji. El almost could not breathe because of how shocked she is reading a message sent between Mike and this “Nicole H. bitch…” as she now refers to her in her head. El can’t help herself so she looks at the entire conversation history between them and it just made her sick to her stomach. The message exchange on his phone was surprisingly short but it goes like this:

Wednesday:

 **Nicole H:** Hey is this okay if I text you at this number?

 **Nicole H:** This is Nicole by the way…

 **Mike:** Yea no worries lol

 **Nicole H:** cool 😊

 **Mike:** No problem, looking forward to Friday night…thanks by the way

 **Nicole H:** I’m the one who should be thanking you for last week lol…hence the reason for Friday 😊

Thursday:

 **Nicole H:** Hey just checking to see if we are still on for tomorrow night? You are picking me up right? 😊

El just wanted to throw up…she honestly can’t believe what she just read. The man that she loves apparently saw this girl last week and she was so…satisfied? With him…(Yuck!… El thought) that she wants to see him again this Friday??? As she is still holding Mike’s phone another couple notifications pop up from this “Nicole H” that reads “My address is 455 8th street, Hawkins IN” “I’ll be ready at 6:30, looking forward to it!!!” followed by another one of those stupid smiley face emoji’s… “I can’t believe his…mistress?…I don’t know what to call her…is in Hawkins, how long has this been going on??? The message chain was short so maybe it is recent…but then why have an affair all the way back in Hawkins?...”El did not know what to think anymore.

El does not know what to feel… sad? anger? rage?…mostly she is just in shock so she lays down on her side of the bed and closes her eyes. Her brain is racing at a million miles an hour and doesn’t even notice Mike who got out of the shower and also headed to bed. Mike kissed the back of her head and whispered “goodnight” and “I love you” to her as she assumed he thought she was asleep at this point but El just lays there frozen unable to comprehend what she just read. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this...yes it all appears to be one big misunderstanding but it would not be a fun or a very long story if El just figured out what was going on right away. I honestly wanted to get through a lot of background information in this chapter that would help the story make a lot more sense later on but the actual content in the "present day" was not much. If people actually like this I can continue with the fallout of what El just saw next chapter.


	2. I can’t believe he/she did this to me!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El was dealing with her feelings regarding the string of messages she found on Mike's phone and coming to terms with how to deal with it. Does she realize it was all one big misunderstanding or does she go deeper into feeding her own insecurities?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say thanks for some of the feedback on the first chapter so I am glad that people enjoyed the premise. I hope you like this next chapter but I will warn you things go downhill first before things can possibly get better…

El did not get much sleep that night with her thoughts and insecurities getting the better of her. Mike and El shared a queen-sized bed together and El had her spot on the left side of the bed which happened to be near the window. El noticed the sun starting to shine through her blinds and realized that Mike was about to get up soon. Mike usually wakes up early since he has a busy schedule on Fridays. El, meanwhile usually takes the opportunity to sleep in with her class schedule allowing her to take Friday’s off. Like any other Friday morning, Mike got up quietly as to not disturb El but this time El was awake but still laid there silently. Mike went to change and went down and El was still laying there waiting to confront him, but she does not even know what to say. She can hear Mike preparing a quick meal as well as some coffee so she thinks he will leave soon anyways. She really does not want to face him just yet and just wants to stay in bed all day and cry.

Mike for his part started off his Friday as usual. He gets up at 7:00am and gets dressed and heads to the kitchen to make a quick snack and some coffee and head out for his 8am class and lab. He first wakes up and notices El sleeping next to him and has a smile on his face. He wants to give her a quick kiss but does not want to wake her so he quietly gets out of bed (unknown to him that El is already awake). He quietly heads out for the day and texts Dustin to see if he is on his way too since they both share the same class. Mike also remembers that he should tell El about Holly’s project thank you as he is texting Dustin so he sends El the following message, “El you know that project Holly had that she needed help with? She wanted to thank me in person and just misses me in general so I am heading up to Hawkins after my lab ends to see her. I plan on driving back later in the evening so I should be back around 11 or so at night because god forbid I miss a night away from you haha. I know you had plans with Max so I figured you would not be too upset lol…Love you!” As he is on his way to his lab he hopes to be able to get done before 3pm so he could at least see El before having to go to his dinner in Hawkins. 

The clock struck 9:12am and El finally decided to get out of bed. It was a mostly sleepless night but she does believe that she fell asleep between 2:27am and 4:32am as she remembers looking at her phone to check the time at those two times but does not remember anything between then. She sees that Mike sent her a message and reads it back. Mike mentions going to see Holly regarding her school project that El knew about as he worked on it for a couple nights last week, and he also mentions going to Hawkins tonight to see her regarding the project. El did not know weather to be furious or upset…why was this Nicole girl texting him about seeing him tonight and why is he saying that he is meeting up with Holly? Is he honestly using his sister as an excuse to see this girl? Not wanting to get lost in her thoughts this early she tables that for now. El usually spent Fridays at the library to get some much needed quiet time to get her school work done but today she decided to stay home. She did not change from her pajamas and opened up a box of Eggo's (as she does when she is upset) and starts making them two at a time in the toaster. She did not know what to say to Mike’s message so she just responded with an “ok”…

El started drifting into her thoughts and insecurities again regarding Mike. She had thoughts ranging from “I should kick his ass for doing this to me” to “was I not good enough for him…?”. Mostly though, El was just sad about the situation. Sad that Mike would want to seek out another woman to be with. Sad that Mike was not satisfied with their sex life. Sad that she now has to confront him about this and possibly end a relationship with a man who she instantly fell in love with and has been in love with for years. Most of all though, El was sad that Mike apparently did not love her as much as she thought he did because El would never think of being unfaithful to the man that she loves and was honestly shocked to find out that Mike would and it just made her sick to her stomach. Eventually she felt tears fill up her eyes while these thoughts went through her head and El realized that being this upset was getting her nowhere and tried to instead focus on her work. She was at home and not at the library as she usually is on Friday’s because she can’t even think of being alone in public right now but that does not mean that her work had disappeared.

It was a few minutes past noon and El for the most part had distracted herself for the past couple hours slowly going through a box of Eggo's as well as working on a paper she had to write for one of her classes. The thoughts of Mike were still in her head but she just could not bear thinking about them the entire day and was able to distract herself enough and actually get some work done. Unfortunately for her, she received a notification on her phone and it was from Mike. El pulled it up and it was a text from him that read, “Hey El, Unfortunately Dustin and I are caught up in some work in the lab that unfortunately is not going well and I think I might be stuck here until a little after 3…” another message just popped up as El read back his first message and it said, “so for me to meet up with Holly on time I would need to leave straight from the lab and I won’t be able to see you and your pretty face until later tonight” El read those two messages and just got angry that Mike was so dedicated to seeing his lover that he couldn’t bear to be late. Mike then sent a third message that stated, “I am so sorry honey, but since you had plans with Max in the evening I hope you won’t be too bored alone this afternoon. I promise I will make it up to you tomorrow, we can do anything you want and I promise I won’t complain about it lol. Love you lots!”

El did not know what to say, she started to get tears in her eyes as she honestly can’t believe how casual Mike is being about this in his messages, like he does not know what he is doing and casually lying about seeing his sister and saying how sad he is not being able to see her until tonight even though he is going to see this Nicole girl. El did not know how to respond so she did not. El was going to confront Mike about this when he got back from his lab (despite how uncomfortable it would be for her) before he went off to see his…lover (disgusting! El thought), but since Mike was now heading straight from his class she would confront him later tonight and in the meantime she texts Max and she immediately responds and the exchange goes as follows:

**El:** Max, Mike is busy this afternoon so I was wondering if you wanted to meet up around 3 and grab a bite to eat or get some coffee before we go on our shopping adventure???

**El:** I had something happen with Mike that I need to talk to you about in person as well…

**Max:** Sure El, let’s meet up at the coffee shop around the corner of your apartment…

**Max:** What happened with Mike??? Trouble in paradise lol???

**El:** I can better explain it in person, see you then Max

**Max:** Damn girl…

**Max:** Can’t describe it over text…that bad huh? Well tell me all about it then

**El:** Thanks Max I will

El spent the rest of the afternoon bouncing back between her thoughts and trying to get her work done. The clock was approaching 3pm and El was getting ready to wrap things up and head down to see Max. She grabs her phone and looks back at Mike’s message one more time and decides to respond with an “Okay, sounds good thanks for letting me know” trying to sound as neutral as she can before she lets him hear what she has to say when he comes back tonight. El then texts Max “getting ready and will be there soon”. El goes and finally changes out of her pajamas and fixes up her hair. She has no desire or motivation to spend more time than she has to in order to make herself look good, she just wants to be “presentable” as she puts it. She locks the door behind her and heads to the coffee shop.

* * *

Mike for his part has been completely sucked into his lab work with Dustin. During Lunch he told Dustin that he had to go up to Hawkins quick to see Holly because he helped her out with a project and she wanted to thank him with a dinner. Dustin responded with a “Lucky you, you get a free meal out of it I would kill for that…” Mike followed up with, “I still have to drive two hours each way so its not like I am getting an easy meal out of it.” “Besides this project is looking like it will take us close to 3:30 to wrap up and if we don’t finish with it I have to leave anyways and you will have to wrap it up without me.” Dustin responded with “Look Michael I am obviously just going to make you come in with me tomorrow morning to wrap this up if we don’t finish…no way in hell I am spending my Friday afternoon in this stupid lab.” “I suppose that would not be fair to you” Mike said. He followed up in a sad tone with, “Look I need to tell El that I won’t be stopping by home and that I won’t see her until tonight.” Dustin mockingly said “Oh poor you! You don’t get to see your girlfriend for a whole few hours longer than you would have otherwise, how sad…Some of us don’t have the luxury to go home to a girlfriend, be a little more sympathetic to their plight Michael” to which Mike jokingly smiled and nodded and went ahead with texting El.

It was now 3:27pm and Mike and Dustin barely finished their work, almost a half hour later than he intended on being home. Mike then says goodbye with Dustin and heads to his car. He then quickly looks at his phone and sees a message from El. He can’t help but notice how odd it is that El is a little distant in her message and does not respond with a “love you too” as she usually does but he does not think twice about it and sends El a message letting her know that he is on his way and will be back hopefully around 11pm. With that done, Mike begins the two-hour journey to Hawkins. 

* * *

It was a little after 3 and El is entering the coffee shop near her apartment. She orders a medium coffee and a turnover and looks for a spot as Max is not there yet. She gets a message on her phone from Max which said, “Sorry just leaving now, be there in 10!”. El would usually smile or chuckle after reading a message like that knowing that meant double that time but she was in no mood to do so today. El managed to find a spot in a semi-secluded corner (good! El thought as she wanted some privacy for her conversation) after 5 minutes of wandering around waiting for a table to empty as coffee shops near campus are always busy it seems like. El sat down and just stared out the window at people walking around, going about their day and thinking that 24 hours ago she was so happy, about to enjoy her day off by sleeping in and being able to get work done while Mike was at school and then she had a shopping evening planned with Max at the mall. Most importantly for El though she was happy to be in a loving relationship with a man that she loves with all her heart and now her whole relationship is one big question mark. 

About 20 minutes later she gets a message from Mike which simply stated, “El, leaving for Hawkins now, was sad to not be able to see you before I left but I will see you tonight if you are still up! Love you” El did not know weather to be mad or upset about reading that back. She can’t help but feel insulted that he is so casually going about his messages thinking that she does not know any better about this Nicole girl. Before she can go deeper into her thoughts, Max finally walks through the door (about a half hour later than she originally planned). Max first gives El a look and points to the counter indicating she is going to order something first. After a few more minutes Max finally sat down at the table El was sitting at and says “Sorry El, you know how these things go sometimes” to which El responds with a slightly annoyed and angry glare. Max then continues on and says “so, spill!…what happened to you that you could not explain it over text!” and she noticed El start to frown and tears start to fill up her eyes and El simply says “Max… Mike is seeing another girl behind my back…”

* * *

Mike arrived in Hawkins a little after 5:30pm and is parked in the driveway of his childhood home. The drive itself was uneventful but depending on your opinion on things that can be seen as a good thing according to Mike. He then shoots El another message…starting to wonder why El has not been talking to him much all day when she is usually happy to keep messaging him on her day off but once again Mike does not give it a second thought and figures she is probably meeting up with Max right now anyways. He shoots her another message as follows, “El, I hope you are enjoying your time with Max since I haven’t heard from you in a bit. I made it to Hawkins safely. Have fun on your night out and I can’t wait to see you when I get back!” Mike then goes in and figures he should spend the next 45 minutes or so before he has to leave for his dinner with his parents since he did drive all the way here. He does not generally like to interact much with his parents, his mom is okay but his dad has always been cold and distant so Mike treats it more as a formality rather than something that he wants to do.

At around 6:20 he gets into his car with Holly and they are on their way to pick up Nicole and head over to Enzo’s. Holly takes a seat up front with Mike and they make their way over to Nicole’s. As they are driving, Holly said, “you should be thanking Nicole for this by the way, I never wanted to spend what little money I have feeding my big brother a meal…besides you should always do stuff for me just because I am your sister!” and she sticks out her tongue at him in a teasing manner. Mike glances over at her for a second and then says, “I will keep that in mind, and for the record Holly it is proper manners to thank someone after they help you with something weather they are your brother or not” and after a few more seconds of silence he continues on “but you know that even though you annoy me sometimes I would help you with anything if you asked right?” Holly just smiled at him and said, “I know…I love you too Mikey” A little past 6:30 they pull into Nicole’s driveway and Holly shoots her a text that they are outside waiting. Nicole comes out and gets into the car and then they are off to the restaurant. 

* * *

It is right around 4pm and El is sitting at the coffee shop and Max had just heard something that she could not believe…she is speechless for a bit just looking at El as she looks to be about the saddest she has ever seen her. Max breaks the silence with a “Just to be clear, you are telling me that Michael Wheeler, a man who was obsessed with you from the day that I met him, is cheating on you?”. El trying to hide her tears in public responds with, “He clearly was not that obsessed with me if he is off with another girl...” Max then said, “Wait…how do you know this? Did you catch him in the act?”. El then responded with “Gross! Thank god I did not have to walk in on him I don’t think I could ever recover from seeing the man I love with another women in person!” “Okay then, how did you find out then?” Max said. El took a second to gather her thoughts and suppress her sadness as much as she could and said “I saw a text from a girl on his phone last night while he was in the shower and I could not believe what she sent him so then I looked at their message history and…oh Max it was the worst! I wanted to cry right then and there but I was too sad to even move”. Max reached across the table to grab El’s hand as she knows she is struggling to keep whatever composure she can while she tells her this story. Max then asked El “What did the messages say El? Was it conclusive proof?” to which El responded with, “It was the worst Max! Apparently, he met up with her last week at some point and she was so…pleased (gross! El thought)…with his performance that they are meeting up again tonight…that is where he went…apparently she is from Hawkins too so he went up there tonight to meet up with her.” At this point El has a tear or two going down her cheeks but is fighting back a more obvious meltdown that she does not want to have in public. She then continues with, “Her name is Nicole and Mike went up there to meet up with her at 6:30 and she even gave her address, some place on 8th street back in Hawkins…and the worst part, he said he is going to see holly about something regarding one of her school projects, like shamelessly lying to my face as he casually goes about having an affair.” At this point Max is almost as angry at Mike as El appears to be, like how could he do that to her? Max then grabs El and says “lets go!” to which El rushes to grab her unfinished coffee as Max pulls her away…

Max walks El back to her apartment by pulling on her arm and ignoring the “where are we going Max?” questions from El. At around 4:45 they get to Max’s apartment building, but they are not going up to her apartment and instead they walk up to her car. Max says, “Get in!” and El does as she is told. When they get into the car El finally has enough and asks Max in a firm tone, “Max! What exactly are we doing?”. Max then responded with, “El, he said he is with Holly in Hawkins, right?” “Yea but I know he is not!” El said. Max then said, “Right, you and I know he is not but what we are going to do is go to the Wheeler’s house and see if he is there or not…if he is there, great! You probably misunderstood something or misread something and are freaking out over nothing…and if he is not there, at least you will have definitive proof that he lied to your face and that should be enough to dump his ass right then and there!” El sat quietly for about 20 seconds thinking about what Max had said. She would be devastated having to end things with Mike but she needs to see it for her own eyes and go from there so she just let out a quiet “Okay Max, lets go…” and the pair headed off to Hawkins right then.

Max drove the entire way with the radio going, El for her part was really quiet. She did not want to say anything at this point and just wanted to get this over with. El basically leaned her head against the car window and looked out staring in silence for the entire two-hour drive and soon enough they pass the “welcome to Hawkins” sign. Max immediately headed to the Wheeler house remembering where it was since her and the rest of the party spent tons of time there. As they pull up close to it El starts to immediately feel her heart sink as they get to the wheeler house and Mike’s car is nowhere to be seen. Max immediately snaps a pic of the empty driveway, for evidence according to her, but El just can’t take it anymore and just starts crying as hard as she can. El knew that he would not be where he said he would be _(or where she assumed he said he would be, to be a little fair to Mike even though he could have been more clear in telling her his plans)_ but part of her had a hope that the messages she saw were not real or that they were just some sort of sick joke but she can’t take it anymore and just starts crying as hard as she can. Max immediately tries to comfort her and honestly can’t believe that Mike would do something like this to El. “The next time I see Wheeler I am going to kick his ass” Max thought to herself. El spent the next few minutes crying and Hugging Max in Max’s car and eventually said she had enough, and she just wanted to go home. Max took a detour down 8th street just to try and catch Mike in the act only for El to mention that “Max, he said he was picking her up from her house, who knows what sleazy motel or whatever they went to in order to…” and before El could finish her sentence she just started crying again not even wanting to imagine the man she loved intimate with someone else. Max then did not say anything and just went back to Bloomington as fast as she could so El can try to get into a “better” state of mind before Mike comes back home later tonight. 

The drive back was about as quiet as the drive up only this time instead of El having a sad look on her face, Max noticed that El had just an empty look on her face, like she was just destroyed inside and it broke her heart to see her best friend like this. More importantly, she was just furious at the man who made her like this and will definitely have words with him (if not more) tomorrow she thought. El for her part was just sitting, mindlessly staring out the front windshield as she deals wit the fact that her relationship is over and that her entire life essentially from 8th grade onward was one big lie. Worst of all was that even through all of this she did love Mike and starting to get over those feelings will be one of the hardest things she will ever have to do. They pull up to the front of El’s apartment and El does not say a word, just opens the door of the car and starts heading out. Max asks her as she is getting out, “you going to be okay El? Did you need me to come up with you?” “No I will be fine Max, thanks for your help today, I just have to go do what I need to do next alone and it is going to suck…” El said. Max responded with a quick, “Call me anytime if you need to talk, and El, I am so sorry you are going through this!” El then just turned around and headed up the elevators to their apartment and waited for Mike to come, thinking of how she is going to go about her conversation. 

* * *

Mike, Holly, and Nicole were about halfway through their dinner. The first half was basically Holly and Nicole talking about how the class loved their video and how it looked professionally done. They got their grade back and they did get an “A” for the project. The second half they got more into topics about their lives and Nicole asked Mike about his girlfriend. Mike can’t help but smile anytime anyone brings up El so both Holly and Nicole look and giggle at each other. Holly follows up with, “he is so in love with El, that its almost disgusting but it is really cute…considering they got together when they were a year younger than what we are now” Nicole responded with a, “No way he is still with a girl that he was all boyfriend/girlfriend with in 8th grade?” and both Mike and Holly said “yea” at the same time. Mike then responded with “Well, when you know you know!” then Nicole responded with, “Well that sucks! I am already behind in finding the love of my life” and Mike just laughs and says “Don’t worry you are completely normal! I am the weird one here as most people in 8th grade break up after like a week or two, no one is behind and you should take your time to find the right person.” Eventually Holly brought up “So Mikey is El going to be my sister-in-law anytime soon?” in a joking but also kind of serious way. She saw Mike blush and chuckled a little herself but he eventually responded with, “Holly I will work on that once we are done with college, but yea I could not imagine spending the rest of my life without El so hopefully she will eventually agree to be your sister-in-law” to which they both smiled at each other and then continued to finish their meals. 

Eventually Mike dropped Nicole off and thanked her for the dinner. He then took Holly home and told her goodbye and watched as she went into the house making sure she shut the door behind her before he took his attention off of her. He then pulled up his phone and saw no new messages from El, only one from Dustin about some crap that he could not care less about. He shot El one more message saying he was on his way home and that he will see her again in a couple of hours. Mike then made the two hour drive back to their apartment and more importantly back to El. 

* * *

El was sitting on the couch in their apartment and just sat there thinking about how she was going to handle this. She contemplated just leaving a note saying, “I hope Nicole was worth it, see you never!” and quickly pack up all her things and leave. She also thought about just packing up all of Mike’s things and throwing it outside their front door hoping he would get the hint and leave. Most importantly El just wanted Mike to know how it felt to be so hurt by someone who you loved, so that he could get a taste of what she is going through right now. El knew that Mike would be back in less than an hour so she just spent that time collecting her thoughts trying to figure out how she can make Mike understand how devastated she is. Eventually around 20 minutes before 11pm (and around the time when Mike was supposed to arrive) she thinks she has a rough idea of what she is going to say. Due to being in a relationship with Mike for so long El knew all of Mike’s worries and insecurities, especially the ones related to her. El hated the thoughts of using that information against him but she thinks it might be the only way to get him to understand and feel how hurt she actually is. 

Mike parked his car in their apartment’s parking lot and almost joyfully rushed into the building wanting to finally see El. Between leaving early in the morning before she was up, the long and tedious day at the Lab with Dustin, and taking care of the thank you dinner Holly and her friend put together in Hawkins it has been a long, El-less day for him and he can’t wait to finally be able to see her. Unknown to him is that El was waiting upstairs ready to unload on him for what she believes to be unfaithfulness on his part.

El hears the door start to open to her apartment and she knows Mike is now coming in. She is sitting on the couch and is absolutely overwhelmed by all the emotions going through her right now to the point where time appears to completely halt. She then sees Mike come in and he oddly enough has the biggest smile on his face when he sees her but it quickly turns to a look of concern immediately as El probably is staring back at him with a look of both anger and sadness as well as some disgust thrown in there for good measure. Mike immediately starts walking to her and as he does El starts to feel the tears come to her eyes. Mike as he is walking to her asks her, “El, what’s wrong?” in a concerned tone and as he gets within a few feet of her he sticks out his hands like he is about to pull her into a tight embrace but El immediately screams at him and says “Don’t touch me or come near me!” It was Mike’s turn to show some emotions on his face, mainly confusion, sadness, and worry for El. Mike responds with, “El, please tell me what’s wrong? What happened? Why are you upset?” El at this point was full on crying but she was on a mission at this point, to get this done with as soon as possible so she responds by yelling at him a quick line, “I know that you have been seeing another woman!” to which Mike just stood there in shock as he has no idea what she is talking about. Mike was about to say something, “El…I…” and was immediately cut off by El basically screaming and crying and she decided to just fully unload a version of the planned speech she came up with in her head just fifteen minutes ago. For lack of a better term, El decided to go with the “nuclear option” in terms of making Mike feel as bad as she did… “Don’t play dumb with me…I can’t believe after all these years together you would do something like this to me! I thought you loved me as much as I loved you? Was that all just bullshit? Did you just string me along all these years not wanting to be alone until you were finally good enough to get girls on your own? Because let’s be honest with ourselves Mike, we all know that if you never ran a door into the new girl in town that day before 8th grade that no girl in their right mind would have even batted an eye at you…I mean what type of girl besides me would deal with being with the biggest fucking nerd in Hawkins?...We all joked in 9th grade that Dustin was the one most likely to come out of high school a girlfriend-less virgin but be honest with yourself everyone knew that If I was not there that would have been you! Everyone, even you, told me that I was out of your league and I guess I was the idiot who did not listen but maybe it is time I finally upgraded!” El took a quick 10 to 15 seconds to catch her breath after unloading her words onto Mike and at this point Mike looks like someone just took his heart out of him and stomped on it on the ground to the point where El notices tears starting to form in his eyes. But, as she has said, El is on a mission to take care of this as quickly as she can so she continues on…”I read your messages with your precious Nicole H girl, I know you went to see her tonight instead of your made up story about Holly, and you want to know how I know? I drove up there with Max to check out if you were actually with Holly and surprise to no one, your car was not there! I know she said she was happy with your effort last week but guess what? _(this is just El wanting to throw extra salt in the wound at this point)_ You aren’t as good in bed as I told you before, I only said those things to make you feel better about yourself because of how insecure you get so don’t come crawling back to me when she gets tired and bored of your ass in a couple of weeks…I hope she was worth ruining our lives for because guess what I am done…I am dumping your ass! I deserve so much better than this!”

El at this point is looking over at Mike who was speechless and looked paler than a ghost with tears pooling in his eyes. She can safely say that her plan had her desired effect, she appears to have hurt Mike almost as bad as he hurt her. After around 30 seconds of silence with both of them staring at each other in their living room, both of them looking at each other with about the same look (hurt, sadness, and slight anger) Mike decided to break the silence with a broken and quiet sentence to counteract El’s loud yelling and said, “Is…is that what you really think of me?” to which El nodded her head in a yes motion. El honestly did not believe any of these things, she was incredibly happy with Mike and was really glad that during a time when she was scared and confused moving to a new town and having no friends, a cute boy ran into her and essentially changed her life. Her time with Mike was the happiest she has ever been in her life and she never regretted a second of it and she loved him with all her heart. El only said those things because she knew throughout the years what Mike’s insecurities were and she just wanted him to hurt in the same way she was hurting all day long. Mike stood there for a little while longer and told El something that she honestly did not expect. He said in a quiet, somber, and defeated tone, “El…Nicole is Holly’s school friend and they worked on the school project together, they just wanted to thank me for helping them out. She just texted me to thank me for helping her out and to give me her address to pick her up for their thank you dinner. I was not at my parents at that time because we went out to eat.” El just stands there in shock as she honestly did not expect that answer. She just responds with a quiet “oh”…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope people enjoyed the chapter. Even though this is an AU fanfic, I wanted to try and keep a lot of elements from the show in it regarding the characters, like El being overly insecure and assuming the worst like when she saw Mike with Max on the skateboard, or Max immediately taking El’s side regarding Mike and assuming the worst of him without context based on El’s description of things and then telling him to catch him in the act and then dump his ass. El unfortunately decided to go “nuclear” in this situation which was all just one big misunderstanding. Mike for his part was not exactly 100% clear with El either so he also shares some blame but hopefully they can work through it, right? The next chapter will deal with the fallout of El going “nuclear”. Please leave comments and feedback as they are very much appreciated and mean a lot.


	3. Am I the one that ruined everything?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El are dealing with the aftermath of the confrontation following El's rant and subsequent dumping of Mike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter deals with some of the aftermath of El’s (not so) little outburst from last chapter. I appreciate the feedback left by people so more is obviously appreciated. Anyways I hope you like this chapter.

\---4 years ago---

Mike and El were about to enter the 11th grade and have been a couple since 8th grade, which is something most people can’t relate to. Mike always had insecurities in his head (as anyone does) in relation to a lot of things in his life including his friends, family, school, and most of all his relationship with El. So okay, maybe he was a bit more insecure than average…but he tried not to let it impact his life. It was the three-year anniversary of the day Mike and El first met at Benny’s. They made it a tradition to go there to celebrate it every year as it was a special place and a special day for both of them. As they approach the door of Benny’s, Mike makes sure to step in front of El and opens the door for her and lets her walk in. Ever since they first met in an unfortunate way where Mike pushed El down by opening the door on her Mike has been extra cautious not to do that again. El teases him by saying, “That’s good that you let me go in front of you when we have to enter doors, I don’t want you running into another girl and that’s how you find your next girlfriend…” to which Mike responds jokingly but also in a kind of a serious tone as well with, “Maybe I should be more scared that if you go first your next boyfriend will run into you?” El just smiles at him and they eventually find a nice booth by the window and they both settle in and get ready to enjoy their anniversary of when they first met.

Mike always considered himself to be extremely lucky that a girl like El, who he says can be with “anyone she wanted” chooses to be with him all this time. Growing up Mike and his friends were the nerdy kids. He and his friends were constantly picked on and reminded of that fact throughout elementary and middle school. Going into middle school Mike had doubts any girls would ever be interested in him or his friends but he is glad that El appeared to be interested even though he could never quite figure out why for himself. For her part, El also considers herself lucky that Mike is with her. She hears rumblings around school in the girls bathroom or girls locker room about how other’s boyfriends lie to them all the time, aren’t nice to them, only use them for sex, cheat on them etc… and El is grateful that Mike does none of that and is glad that she has him in his life. She remembers last year when a girl El was partnered with in her biology class asked about her plans for the weekend and El said that Mike had planned out a nice date afternoon for them where she would get on his bike and they would go to the quarry and enjoy an afternoon together and have a quick snack/picnic together and her partner essentially said, “Wait…you are telling me your boyfriend not only voluntarily goes on romantic dates with you but plans them himself???” and El just smiled back and said “yup!” thinking that she was glad that Mike was apparently pretty different than most of the boys in her grade.

During their date at Benny’s Mike did pose this question, “El, don’t get me wrong I am really glad that you decided to stick with me for all these years but do you ever get tired being with one of Hawkins’ biggest nerds? Like you are an incredibly nice and amazing girl and not to mention pretty, really pretty girl…like don’t get me wrong I am definitely not complaining but one might ask the question why someone like you is with someone like me…like you could definitely upgrade if you wanted to” to which El frowned a little and just looked at Mike thinking to herself why can’t he see just how amazing he is and that any girl would be lucky to be with him. El knew that Mike never thought too highly of himself, and it is probably explained by the years of constantly being made fun of on his end. El just grabs his hand across the table and says, “Mike, trust me if you weren’t amazing yourself I would not be sticking around as you put it…so at least believe that I love you and think you are the most amazing boy in the world and if no one else believes that, it works out for me since I get to keep you all to myself!” as she smiled at him. Mike smiled back at her and said, “I love you too and by the way I would love it if you kept me all to yourself, you know how hard it would be to find another girlfriend for me? I actually don’t run into pretty girls who by the way also happen to be interested in me all that often…” Both Mike and El chuckle at that statement. El is no stranger to insecurity either, she remembers when Max was first starting to join their party El saw Mike and Max talking and immediately assumed she was interested in him and was worried since it had only been a couple of months since they met and they were not even officially boyfriend/girlfriend yet and El remembers just wanting for Max to fall off her stupid skateboard and “stay away from her man” as she put it. Eventually Mike did ask El to the snowball that December in 8th grade and they have been together ever since. 

* * *

\---Present day---

Mike expected a few things that could have happened when he got home. Maybe El was on the couch watching a movie waiting for him to come home. She could have already gone to bed if she was tired or maybe she was still out with Max too. What Mike did not expect was to come home and see his girlfriend sitting on the couch with a look on her face that made Mike feel so bad for her. The best way he can describe it was a mixture of sadness, anger, and disappointment. Mike’s immediate instinct was to go give El a big hug and ask her “what’s wrong?” so he started doing just that. What surprised him and caught him off guard was when El essentially screamed at him “Don’t touch me or come near me!” Mike was genuinely confused so he asked El what was wrong? The next words out of her mouth did surprise him. El accused Mike of being unfaithful in their relationship and Mike was just in shock for a bit and was surprised that El would even say such a thing since he never had any intention of being with anyone else but her. Mike then tried to explain but was immediately cut off by El and then was bombarded with every insecurity Mike had in the back of his mind during his whole relationship with El. As he heard the woman he loved say each consecutive word it tore him up inside. Thoughts circle through his head ranging from “why is she saying all of this?” to “Does she actually believe any of this” to thoughts feeding into his own insecurities that he has been holding onto “I knew that she always felt this way!” Mike did not know what he was feeling exactly but while listening to El say these things about him all he felt was sadness and emptiness and could even feel tears starting to fill up his eyes. Mike was never a big crier but he could not help what his body was doing at this point. After El had finished her rant Mike did not even bother correcting her misunderstanding of the situation regarding where he was tonight, all he could summon the courage to say was an answer to the question that has been bugging him the past couple of minutes while El was going off on him…he says in a broken tone trying not to break down, “Is…is that what you really think of me?” and then El basically confirms his fears and says yes. He then calms his nerves a bit and explains the situation to El, not for her to take back anything that she said but mainly to iterate that he had never been unfaithful to her and that her suspicions were not correct. After he explained himself, realizing that El had just broken up with him, he walks past her as she stood there and went to their room so he can gather a few things and maybe stay with Dustin and Will for the night and essentially process how his life had just turned upside down in a matter of like 15 minutes. 

* * *

To say that El was shocked would be an understatement. El took a minute to process what Mike had just told her. She did not even realize that Mike had just walked past her and went off to their room not saying a single word to her in the process of doing so. She started putting together the pieces together in her head. She remembers Mike working on a project for Holly last week. She did not know that Holly had a partner for the project or that they were planning on thanking him in person. She then saw a message on Mike’s phone from Nicole which said how he was going to pick her up the next day and meet up with her and El assumed the worst. She does also think that Mike should have told her about Nicole as well as Holly but she can understand why he didn’t think it was necessary as everything he told her was technically the truth, but just vague enough where suspicion and insecurity got the best of El. A couple minutes pass as Mike is in their bedroom and El is still standing in their living room and El finally snaps back to reality. In her head she is thinking, “It was all just one big misunderstanding I should go talk to Mike…” at this point El feels tears start to appear again in her eyes as she is just now fully understanding the magnitude of what she just did a few minutes ago. El had just fed into a lot of insecurities Mike had about their relationship by essentially confirming all his worst fears in an attempt to hurt him and she then “dumped his ass…” over something she realizes was just one horrible misunderstanding. El then starts to feel the tears come down her face at an increasing rate. She then decides to go talk to Mike and try to fix things as soon as humanly possible except that she then is greeted by Mike who has a backpack strapped to his back and is heading straight to the door…

El, with tears still going down her face calls out to Mike, “Mike, wait!...please, let me explain…” and Mike did stop and turn around, which surprised her a bit too since she assumed he would just continue walking out. El then took a few steps closer to him and said, “Mike…I had no idea that Nicole was Holly’s friend and that you were just meeting up with them…” to which Mike just responded with, “those things you said about me…you said that you actually meant them…is that true?” El at this point just starts crying out loud and tries to respond as best as she can, “Mike…please believe me…I was hurting all day thinking you were with another woman so I…so…” El took a breather to wipe some tears from her face that were just quickly replaced with new ones and meanwhile Mike then says with the same cold expression on his face that he has had during this conversation, “so I.. what, El? You were saying…”. El shocked by how cold his tone is ( _well what did you expect after what you said to him_ ). She then continues to find the words through her tears, “so I wanted to hurt you…hurt you in a way that would make you feel the way I was feeling. But Mike, please believe me I did not mean any of it, I…”to which Mike cut her off immediately and he said, “El, when people are angry they always let their true feelings out…” to which El started crying more and now she started to reach out and try to hug Mike, only this time Mike pulls back and El just realized she got a small taste of what Mike must of felt like 20 minutes ago, and it did not feel good at all. 

Mike then looked at El and said, “After all these years together did you still not know just how much you mean to me? Why would you even think that I would go behind your back and see another woman?” El just stood there quietly thinking and realizing that Mike had never given her any reason to doubt his feelings for her and she just saw a message on his phone and let insecurities get the best of her. She then was about to start explaining her thoughts but Mike started speaking and said, “Look El, I am very much aware that I am not the best looking guy out there or the most successful guy out there, or as you so kindly put it not the best in bed either…” which just made El upset and start crying harder because she hated the fact that Mike thought these things about him which were not at all true to her, but unfortunately for her she just pretty much confirmed all these insecurities a little bit ago even though she meant none of it. Mike wanted to continue on with the conversation but he could not, it just broke his heart so he simply said, “I hope you find your upgrade and are happy El…” and just quickly walked out of their apartment ignoring El calling out his name behind him. 

* * *

Dustin and Will were watching a movie and eating some snacks and enjoying some “adult beverages” before bed at their apartment. They both were single and neither were the “partying” type so this is a lot of how their weekend nights went where they weren’t with the rest of the party. Dustin then saw his phone vibrating on the table in front of him and noticed Mike was calling. Dustin answered the phone and said, “Michael how was your free dinner?” “It was fine but I have some more pressing matters I need to talk about with you and Will if he is up too” Mike said. Dustin responded with, “Yea, Will is here too…what’s up?” and Mike just said, “I need to crash at your place tonight since El dumped me…” which caused Dustin to literally spit out booze everywhere with Will in the background saying, “What the fuck Dustin!”… Dustin then turned to Will and said, “El dumped Mike!” which caused Will to just say, “yeah, right!…” in a sarcastic tone. Dustin puts his phone back to his face and says, “Mike are you bullshitting me right now? Because I am like 4 drinks in ready to go to bed so now is not the time to be messing with me…” Mike then said, “I’m literally walking over right now and trust me, I wish none of this was real…” Dustin noticed the sad and serious tone in Mike’s voice and then he said, “Okay buddy Will and I will be here for you and you can explain it all to us when you get here.” “Thanks Dustin, see you soon” Mike said and then he hung up his phone. He saw that his phone was ringing again thinking that Dustin might of pocket dialed him after hanging up the phone but it was actually El calling. Mike stopped walking for a second and just looked down at his phone in his hand. He thought about what he would even say to her after she dumped him and essentially confirmed that she actually believed that she was too good for him and that she should ‘upgrade’ as she kindly put it. Mike just decided to ignore her call and put his phone on silent not wanting to confront El after everything she said and continue on to Dustin and Will’s apartment. 

It was almost Midnight and Mike is knocking on Will and Dustin’s apartment. Will opens the door and immediately see’s the look on his friend and both Him and Dustin just give Mike a hug because he honestly looked like he could use it. Dustin then immediately looked at Mike and said, “you my friend could definitely use a drink…” and Dustin quickly whips something up for Mike. Mike is not a big drinker but everyone in the party turned 21 earlier this year so he did occasionally partake. They then sat down in their living room and Dustin finally said, “Okay Mike what happened? If you don’t want to go into details that’s okay but you know we are here to help…” Mike said, “No I will tell you so you can at least understand my current situation, I think I will need all the help I can get.” Mike put his head back on the couch and put his hands on his faced and rubbed his eyes because he did have a long day, but then he went into detail about what went down. He started off by saying, “So I helped Holly out with a school project, which she worked on with a friend of hers named Nicole”…Dustin immediately interjected stating, “Wait what does your sister have to do with you and El?” to which Mike just said, “If you are going to keep interrupting this is going to take a longer than it has to” Dustin then said, “Sorry, please continue Michael” and Mike takes a sip of his drink and continues on… “Okay, so basically Holly and her friend wanted to thank me for helping them out so they put together a dinner at Enzo’s back in Hawkins for me so that is where I was tonight. What happened was last night El happened to see a message on my phone from Nicole, Holly’s friend, which to paraphrase went along the lines of ‘Thanks for last week Pick me up at 6:30 tomorrow, can’t wait!’ and El immediately assumed that it was some girl I was seeing behind her back.” Dustin and Will both looked at Mike and Will said, “Well you obviously told her that it was just Holly’s friend, right? Like why did she dump you then?” Mike then said, “Well things get interesting here…apparently El was sitting on this knowledge all last night and throughout the day today without confronting me about it and let her thoughts and feelings assume the worst. She even went with Max to Hawkins to see if I was actually home with Holly and naturally I was not there since we went out to eat. She then confronted me when I got home and…well she basically went on a 10 minute rant pretty much stating how I am some loser nerd and how she is way out of my league and could do better…” Dustin then interrupted, “Well, she is kind of right Mike…she is way too hot for you…” Mike then gave him a glare and continued on, “eventually she told me a bunch of things which I won’t get into with you but long story short she said she is ‘dumping my ass’. I eventually got a chance to tell her the truth but her basically going after every insecurity I have ever had while I was with her really stung so I left as soon as I could and here I am…” Will then said, “Mike, it seems like she just said those things to you because she was hurt…obviously she should not have said them but it sounds like it was all one big misunderstanding I don’t think she necessarily meant to dump you if she knew that it was all one giant misunderstanding on her part…” Mike then said, “I don’t know Will, you know how they say when you are angry you say things that have been bottled up inside of you forever? What if she actually did have those feelings trapped inside of her for a while? I hope you both never have to hear the person you love more than anything on this planet essentially confirm your worst insecurities to your face to the point where it just breaks you inside…” Will then said, “I don’t know Mike, I still think it is all one big misunderstanding, why don’t you just talk to her and get some clarification tomorrow? It looks like she just said some things in the heat of the moment when she felt like you had completely betrayed her…” “Look Will, I get what you are saying and deep down I really want to believe you, I just want to sleep on it for now and maybe deal with it later…” Mike said. Eventually Will and Dustin went off to their room and Mike lay on their couch in their living room just staring at the ceiling unable to sleep at all… 

* * *

\---Back at Mike and El’s Apartment---

While Mike was walking away, El was trying to get him to come back and hear her out by calling his name but Mike was just walking as fast as he possibly could and she had no idea where he was even going. Within a span of a few seconds Mike was gone and El was standing near their door, face covered in tears and has no idea what to do. Eventually after a few minutes El finally went back and sat down on the couch and immediately tried calling Mike. She wanted to explain to him so badly that she was hurt at the time and she meant none of what she said and that it was all one big misunderstanding that she stupidly caused by not having a simple conversation and instead letting insecurity and anger get the best of her. Unsurprisingly Mike did not pick up and El was too sad to even leave a voicemail. She then called Max and hoped that her friend would at least be able to help considering everyone in the party is friends and Max is with one of Mike’s best friends, Lucas. Max then answers the phone, “El…how did it go?” to which El just responded with audible crying and Max said, “that bad huh…” and El followed up with, “Max…I made a terrible mistake and ruined everything…” “What do you mean?” Max asked. “Mike…he…he was never seeing another girl…” El said fighting to say words through her crying. “That’s good, right El?...I mean he was not cheating on you like you thought so everything should be good so why are you crying so much?” Max asked as she is confused herself now. As she is still fighting through her tears El said, “Max…I found that out after…after I basically went on a rant…essentially confirming every one of his insecurities and then I…broke up with him…based on our genius discussion…but I did not mean any of it Max and…he left and I don’t know where he is…”. El followed up with more crying and Max basically said, “El, I am on my way I can’t let you be like this all alone in your apartment” to which El just said, “Thanks, Max” and then El sat there with her head in her hands waiting for Max and wondering where did Mike even go off to.

While El was waiting for Max, she tried once more to get a hold of Mike. She tried calling again even though she expected no answer…which she was right about. She then sent a couple messages to him and kept it simple and to the point, “I’m sorry, I love you” and “please talk to me” in the hopes that he will maybe answer back one way or another. Max to her credit wasted no time and in a matter of 15 minutes she was knocking on El’s door. El opened the door and Max took one look at her and she looked like a big mess… Her eyes were red and swollen as well as her nose was red too and Max knew that El has probably been crying for a long time. She immediately gave her a hug and El continued to Cry into Max’s shoulder and said, “Max…I ruined everything…”Max then said, “Okay El, just sit down and take a deep breath and then let me know what happened.”

El then sat down finally and sent Mike another message. She then turned to Max who had a look of concern on her face and then Max finally asked, “Okay El, so form your phone call you said that Mike was not cheating, but you blew up at him anyways and then dumped him?” El has calmed down from crying, or maybe her body is just tapped out of tears, but she is finally able to talk to Max while only having a few stray tears appear in her eyes. El responds with, “So basically Mike was helping his sister and a friend out with a school project and long story short they wanted to thank him so he went up to Hawkins and they treated him to a dinner. Holly’s partner’s name was Nicole. That is why she was texting him about how he helped her out last week and was going to see him tonight at dinner. Since they were at dinner that is why when we went there, we did not see him at his parent’s house.” Max thinks about it for a few seconds and says, “El…that is way different than the story you told me earlier today, that actually makes a lot more sense than Wheeler cheating on you. Honestly when you told me I was more surprised that he actually managed to have enough game to pick up side chicks…” El then put her head in her hands and started to cry a little more when Max mentioned that reminding her of the speech she gave Mike. Max then said, “What’s wrong El? Why are you crying again?” El then said, “Max…I basically told Mike that if he never met me that day before 8th grade that he would have been alone this whole time because no one would ever want to be with the biggest loser in Hawkins and how I should have listened to everyone that I was out of his league…” Max then jokingly said, “Well I mean you kind of are…” which was met with El giving her an angry glare and then eventually a sad face and she continued talking, “Max I love him more than anything and I basically told him that he was beneath me and that he should be thankful that someone like me would ever be with him but I just said that to hurt him” Max then gave El a hug and said, “Well, El it sucks that this all happened from a misunderstanding” Max then helped El up and said, “C’mon, lets try to sleep at least…I told Lucas I would be with you tonight because you are going through some stuff” 

El knew that she would probably be getting her second night of little to no sleep, but did not argue with Max. As Max was getting ready for bed she tried calling Mike one more time and followed up with a couple more messages after she is sent to voicemail yet again. El then got ready for bed herself even though she did not expect to be able to sleep. She thinks that maybe just due to sheer exhaustion she will eventually pass out in the middle of the night. El then goes to lay down and realizes that its almost 1am. Max is about ready to pass out so she just says, “Goodnight El and I know it’s easier said than done but please try to get some sleep and I will do everything I can to get Wheeler to at least talk to you tomorrow, maybe even drag in Lucas to help. I know I give Wheeler a lot of shit but even though he may be hurting right now one thing I know for sure is that he loves you a lot so call me an optimist but I do think that he will come around.” El tries her best to hang onto Max’s words as at this point it is all that she has. She immediately starts worrying about Mike though as Max doses off to sleep. El starts to worry about where he could have even gone and has thoughts pop up in her head ranging from “where did he even go” to “Is he safe at least?” El could not help herself so she sends Mike yet another message. She knows that Mike is upset with her but there is no way she can sleep unless she knows he is at least somewhere safe and okay. She then sends him this, “Mike I know you are mad at me but please can you at least let me know that you are somewhere safe please so I can stop worrying about that part at least.” El then sets her phone back down not expecting an answer but then a few minutes later she hears her phone buzz and she immediately grabs it and notices a message from Mike. She opens it up as fast as she can and he simply responded with, “El, I am safe.” El is a little disappointed but to be honest with herself she was not sure what she was expecting him to say. At least now she knows he is safe so out of all the concerns in her head right now she can toss that one away for now. She then texts him back to thank him for letting her know he is safe at least. El is not sure what tomorrow will bring but one thing is for certain she is going to do whatever it takes to get Mike to believe her that none of what she said was true during her ugly rant.

* * *

\---At Dustin and Will’s apartment---

Mike is tired after a long day but as he lays there on the couch of Dustin and Will’s apartment he can’t sleep. Mike did know that he was lucky to be with El. He always thought that he was the luckiest guy on the planet that such an amazing girl chose to be with him. He was not naïve to the fact that El was ‘out of his league’ and told El that he was many times, but to hear it straight from her mouth was something he was not prepared for. Part of him wants to believe El, that it was all one big misunderstanding and that she just said those things to get back at him for what she thought was cheating on his part. He also knows that those thoughts must have been in El in one form or another for it to come out at all, regardless of how mad she was. Mike, for better or worse, was a believer that what people say when they are angry does have some truth behind it. He was not sure what time it was so he looked at his phone and realized he had not checked it ever since his walk over here. He noticed that it was almost 2am and there were multiple missed calls from El and multiple messages from El. He opened up El’s messages and was greeted with this message chain on his screen:

Friday:

**El:** I'm sorry, I Love you

Saturday:

**El:** please talk to me

**El:** where did you go?

**El:** Mike please just talk to me, I meant none of what I said

**El:** I love you so much

**El:** Mike I know you are mad at me but please can you at least let me know that you are somewhere safe please so I can stop worrying about that part at least

Mike did not know what to make of any of El’s messages and quite frankly was not awake enough to come up with anything good to say. He did make a note of El’s last message and while she basically brought up almost every insecurity he had during their relationship and confirmed them as well as dumped him, he knows what it is like to not know where anyone is or weather they are safe or not and He did love El even though he was not sure about her feelings after her outburst earlier. Mike then responded and let El know that he was safe. As he was putting his phone away he saw a notification come up and El sent another message which said, “Thank you for letting me know, I am glad you are somewhere safe at least.” Mike was not sure of what to make of El’s messages. She genuinely sounds concerned about him, but Mike can’t get the vivid image of El out of his head where she basically screaming at him about how she can do better and then proceeding to dump him. He then put his phone down and laid there deep in his thoughts and hoping his body will eventually sleep and maybe he can have some time to think clearly tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, basically Mike can’t help but feel that there was some truth to El’s outburst in part due to his insecurities but also because he does believe that people do mean what they say even if it is in the heat of the moment there is some truth to people’s words. El for her part is struggling with how to get Mike to understand that she really did not mean any of what she said and that she is genuinely sorry. Hopefully things will eventually work out well for these two (I mean I am writing it so I will make sure it will eventually have a happy ending). In any case please leave your thoughts and feedback, I really do appreciate it and it helps me keep writing more.


	4. I don't want this to end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter follows the aftermath of El's blow-up where a conversation is had between Mike and El regarding the previous nights events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologize for getting this out much later than I wanted. Hopefully you all will like this chapter as it is kind of a turning point for the story.

\---At Mike and El’s Apartment---

El did not get much sleep for the second night in a row. It was not surprising to her and she did anticipate that this would happen, but that does not mean it’s still not frustrating. She picked up her phone and saw the time which read 8:34AM and was slightly disappointed to see no new notifications…to be more specific she was disappointed to see no new notifications from one particular person. El had been up for about 15 or 20 minutes before she looked at her phone and she remembers texting Mike late and remembers closing her eyes after Mike had responded to her. In total she can say she maybe got 4 or so hours of sleep if she is being generous but combined with the fact that she spent last night awake for most of the night she knows she is in for a rough day based on that alone, never mind the fact that her relationship with Mike is in rough shape. She notices Max who is still sleeping and decides not to wake her. She is grateful that Max stayed with her because there is no way she could have handled last night alone. 

Eventually Max woke up and they got out of bed and were in the kitchen where El started to make some coffee for both of them. El desperately needed it too with the lack of sleep two nights in a row. Max then asked her, “sleep well?” in a semi-joking tone. El did not even respond and just shot her an angry glare. “Did you hear from Wheeler at all?” Max asked. El started to frown a bit and just said, “Not really…I mean he finally responded to me asking if he was at least somewhere safe for the night but all he said was ‘I’m safe’ and left it at that. “That’s a good sign, right? At least he said something and did not completely ignore you!” Max said in an exciting tone trying to cheer up her best friend. El did not respond and instead attempted to call him in the hopes he would at least pick up so they can try to talk things through. Unsurprisingly it went to voicemail after ringing for nearly a minute. She then put her phone on the counter and leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her forehead in her palms. She did not cry this time, she was mainly frustrated that Mike won’t even talk to her. She does not blame him though after what she did, but it does not make it hurt any less for her. El really had no idea what to do. Max could sense the frustration on her friend and came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder and said, “El, don’t worry we will figure this out…I will call Lucas and see if he can at least get Mike to come talk to you today.”

Max picked up her phone and called Lucas. After a few rings Lucas did pick up. “Good morning sleepyhead…are you actually awake or did I wake you up?” Max said. “Actually not only am I awake I am fully dressed and I am heading to meet up with the guys for some breakfast…sounds like Dustin needed a big meal after last night…” Lucas responded. Max then asked, “The boys…so does that mean Mike will be there too?” “I assume he will be since he spent the night with Dustin and Will. I know you told me what happened with them last night but I still can’t believe it…” Lucas said. Max followed up with “Yea it’s a long story and I am sure Mike will fill you in with his version but could you please do me a favor and at least get Mike to just talk with El at least…” “I will bring it up but I don’t want to get too involved in this if he is not ready to…” Lucas said and he was cut off by Max, “Lucas I know Mike is one of your best friends but El is your friend too so could you please just try to get him to meet up with her? I am not asking you to tell him to get over everything and get back to normal but just do that much for me at least?” There was a few seconds of pause and Lucas said, “Fine I will do my best to at least get him to talk but I am not promising any results.” “Thanks babe, I will see you later today then…Love you!” Max said. Lucas finished off with a quick “Love you too” and ended the call. 

Max then turned to El, who was partially listening to her side of the conversation and was waiting to hear what Lucas said, and told her, “Okay a couple things…first Mike was apparently at Dustin and Will’s place last night so he was not out of town or anything and second all four of the boys are going to eat breakfast and I told Lucas to get him to talk to you at least so can you at least cheer up a bit now and lets go eat since I am hungry and Lucas talking about breakfast made me even more hungry…” El looked at Max and said, “I won’t cheer up until Mike realizes that I did not want to break up with him and that I meant none of what I said to him…and sure I will come eat with you but I am not really that hungry…” “El…you have to eat…just eat something small okay?” Max requested. El then said, “Ill try for you but I can’t make any promises.” Max chucked a bit and said, “What is with you and Lucas? A friends group built on promises and now all of a sudden everyone is all like ‘I can’t promise anything’…never mind let’s just go eat…”

* * *

\---At Dustin and Will’s Apartment---

Mike was already up for a while but was laying on the couch. He was sitting there and thinking about what could possibly make El say all those things about him. Thoughts ranging from “Maybe she is telling the truth and just said those things in anger…but those thoughts still had to have come from somewhere and she knew exactly what would hurt me” to “Was she dating me this whole time because she thought I was some loser who would never dump her? Then when she did think I hurt her she immediately let her true feelings out and immediately dumped me without a second thought…Was I just a safe bet for her?” Mike probably spent way too much time dwelling on these thoughts and his insecurities were once again getting the better of him. Eventually though Will came out of his room for the morning and Mike decided to sit up from his laying down position on the couch.

Will made some coffee and then offered some to Mike. “So did you sleep okay?” Will asked Mike. Mike responded with, “Does it look like I slept great?” “No need to be rude Mike!” Will followed up with in a joking tone followed by a laugh. “So, are you going to finally just go talk to El and patch things up?” Will asked after a couple more minutes while they were drinking coffee. “I would not even know what to say to her even if I wanted to talk to her…” Mike responded with. Dustin’s door opens and he walks over and pours himself some coffee with his hair all messed up and no shirt on. Mike and Will exchange a glare and Will then asks, “Feeling well this morning Dustin?” to which Dustin just raises his middle finger towards him at and sat down on the couch. 

After a couple more minutes of everyone silently drinking their coffee, Dustin finally speaks up and says, “Let’s go eat something…I’m texting Lucas right now…” Mike was not too hungry and Will was not a big eater but they figured it would be nice to get out for a bit. Mike then felt his phone vibrate and looked at his screen and saw that El was calling him. He knew that he did not want to talk to her yet as he didn’t even know what he would say. “I mean what do you tell someone who basically told you that they always thought you were beneath them and then dumps you after falsely accusing you of cheating” Mike thought to himself. Eventually the vibrating stopped, and Mike put his phone back in his pocket. Will looked at him and noticed the sadness on his face. He then asked him, “Was that who I think it was? Why didn’t you answer?” “I’m not ready to deal with that right now…I don’t even know what I would say to her…” Mike responded. Dustin then interrupted, “Lucas is in…ill get dressed and let’s get some pancakes or waffles I am starving…” Once Dustin was ready, they then head to a nearby diner that serves breakfast. 

* * *

\---At the diner---

Mike, Dustin, and Will walked into the Diner near their apartment and saw that Lucas had beat them and already kept a table. It was not too busy considering it is a college campus and its like 10am on a weekend morning…It was a lot busier back at 2am with everyone wanting a meal after a night of fun. Lucas saw them coming and greeted them as they approached the table, “Gentlemen, you made it…I assume this was all Dustin’s Idea?” “Of course it was my Idea, you think Will would want to eat a gigantic breakfast?” Dustin replied. Shortly afterwards their waiter came by and asked what do they want to drink. They all said “Coffee” almost in unison. Dustin then began addressing the elephant in the room, “So I am guessing everyone here is caught up to speed on Michael’s unfortunate situation?” he said. Mike sighed and said, “I honestly never thought I would be in this situation where my friends had to sit me down around a table and discuss me being dumped…I really thought I would not have that problem after I had been with El for so long…” “Oh c’mon Mike, she ‘dumped’ you after she thought you were cheating and it turns out you were not…sure she probably said some things she regrets but still I don’t see what the big deal is where you can’t even talk to each other” Lucas said. Mike took a second and then responded with, “Look, it was not that she just said some things, she came up with some really personal things that really makes me question our entire relationship…I am not sure what Max told you but you can ask Dustin and Will more details since I basically explained everything to them last night.”

Before anyone could say anything the waiter came by with coffee and then asked everyone for their orders. Both Lucas and Dustin ordered the “logger’s platter” which consisted of 3 pancakes, 3 eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. Will on the other hand ordered a simple omelet. Mike thought about it and decided that even though he was not really in a mood to eat, his body was hungry so he ordered biscuits and gravy (he considered ordering waffles but knowing that it was one of El’s favorites he did not need a constant reminder of her while trying to eat). After their orders were placed, the waiter then refilled their coffee cups and went off. Will was the first one to start speaking again, “Mike, listen you know we were friends for almost our entire lives so please listen to me when I tell you that you should at least give her a chance to explain her thoughts and hear her out, you owe her that much at least.” “What will I even say to her? Like I know you all have become friends with her too over the years and I don’t want to intentionally damage the party but as of right now I really don’t know what to say to a girl who I thought I would spend the rest of my life with after she just dumped me in a pretty nasty way.” Mike responded. Lucas then jumped in and said, “Look, you don’t have to say much, just hear her out that’s it…if you don’t like what she has to say then fine but at least you will get to know her thoughts. I can tell Max to invite her over to our place and you can come back with me does that sound okay to you?” Mike took a bit to think about it. He really does not want to know what to say to El but one thing he is sure of is that he loves her more than anyone else in the world and he really wants to get some sort of explanation for why she said what she did. After maybe 30 seconds of silence with all eyes on him Mike finally said, “Okay, I can do that…I will hear her out at least just so I can maybe get a bit of clarification on the whole situation” Lucas smiled at him, knowing Max will be happy with him as well didn’t hurt either, and said “Great! I have quick call to make, excuse me…” Lucas then called Max and set up a quick meeting where they can just talk for a bit. 

Eventually their food arrived and they started talking about other topics as to not completely bombard their friend with this situation, especially now that he has agreed to at least have a chat with El. Dustin suggested going out to a local bar tonight to help Mike relax a bit. Will then said, “Dustin is that what you really need? Another night of drinking?” “Look, I am doing this for Michael here, and besides it’s the weekend its not like I am doing this everyday plus we are in College isn’t that what people do?” Dustin said. “I am not sure I would be in the mood to do anything tonight anyways” Mike said. Dustin then followed up with, “Dude you can’t mope around all day and night you need to have a bit of fun, besides you might get some rebound action if your talk with El goes bad” Mike almost laughed but he was too grossed out by the thought of even being with anyone but El and even though she dumped him Mike knows she would be a tough girl to get over and it would definitely take a long time. Dustin then smiled at him and without Mike saying anything Dustin said, “I could be your wingman!” At this point everyone let out a laugh and Mike said, “Okay Dustin, how often has that worked out for you?” He didn’t respond and they eventually finished their meals and then headed back to Lucas’s place. Dustin and Will also tagged along because according to him, “I wouldn’t miss this hot drama for anything!” and Mike just said, “Well I am glad my life’s issues are entertaining for you.” Eventually they got to Lucas’s apartment and waited for El and Max to arrive. 

* * *

\---At the coffee shop---

Max and El walked to the nearby coffee shop that they went to yesterday. El remembers making this journey yesterday with a completely different mindset thinking her whole relationship was over. Today is really no different except that it is her fault and not Mike’s fault. El stayed relatively quiet through the walk and finally got to the coffee shop. Max ordered herself a latte as well as a croissant. El not really thinking too much just ordered the same thing as she really did not want to spend time thinking about what to order. Maybe that is just her tiredness taking over though so hopefully the latte will help more than her usual morning coffee. Max and El found a table relatively easy as the coffee shop is not as busy on campus on weekend mornings as it is on weekday mornings. 

Max then initiated the conversation with, “So what is your plan for when you talk to Wheeler?” “Max…I don’t even know if he is going to talk to me considering he ignores all my calls and almost all of my messages…”, El said. Max then responded with, “Well I for one am almost positive he will talk to you today but even if you are not as sure as me you still need some sort of game plan…like what are you going to say or like what are you going to wear?” “Max I really don’t know all I want to tell him is that none of what I said is true, I just said that to hurt him because I thought he had betrayed me and I wanted him to feel almost as bad as I did”, El said. Max then had a slight grin on her face and said, “That is a perfect start El, all you need to do is tell him that none of it was true at all…even if some of it was kind of true…” El just shot Max an angry glare but she continued on, “…anyways that is a good start but the real question is how are you going to convince him that none of it is true…like you can say it is not true but you need to back it up…like a school paper, support your thesis statement” which was followed by a laugh by Max. El did think about it for a bit, and really appreciated the question from Max as she did have a point. El just said, “Max I don’t know…I would just say would I really stay with you for 7 years if I wanted to jump ship so easily?” Max smiled at her again and said, “That’s a good answer El…see its good to think some of these things through before you talk otherwise you will go into a talk and be all like ‘um…I don’t know’ and look like a complete idiot…trust me the last thing I want to be is look like an idiot when talking to anyone so this is what I do beforehand.”

Max then hears her phone vibrate on the table and sees that its Lucas. She picks it up and says, “Lucas…did you manage to do your job or did you chicken out and not even suggest it?” “for your information I not only suggested it but I got him to agree to it too…can you be back at our place in a half hour with El?” Lucas said. Max smiled looking at El and then said to Lucas, “Oh we will definitely be there…thanks a bunch babe! Bye and Love you.” After Max hung up the phone El asked, “Was that Lucas? Did he manage to talk to Mike?” Max said to her, “El, lets hurry and finish our breakfast because Mike will be ready to meet with you at my place in a half hour.” El let out a small smile and was excited for the opportunity to finally talk to Mike. She then began quickly eating her croissant which was not her first choice food item but she does not care anymore she finally gets to see Mike and try to explain things to him and hopefully fix this whole misunderstanding. 

“Now El, for the real question…you need to put on an outfit that Mike absolutely loves, does not have to be fancy but you need to look good…trust me I have done this with Lucas many times and…lets just say he can’t help himself and keep his hands off of all this” Max said as she uses her hands to gesture at herself. El thinks back to a moment a year ago where she was wearing a sun dress with leggings underneath and a cardigan over it (thanks fall weather) and remembers that Mike told her, “You look really pretty…I mean not that you don’t everyday but I don’t know something about this look…simple yet gorgeous” and she made it a point to wear it every couple weeks that fall. El then tells Max, “Well I think I have one outfit in mind so hopefully he still likes it.” “Trust me El, I have seen the way that boy looks at you he will love it” Max said. Eventually they finished their breakfast and then headed off to El’s apartment so she can change and then go to Max’s apartment to finally meet up with Mike. El is just glad for the opportunity to explain things in person instead of getting her calls ignored. 

* * *

\---At Lucas and Max’s Apartment---

At Lucas and Max’s apartment, the four boys were waiting for the girls to arrive and Lucas then asked Mike, “So…what are you going to say to her?” “Honestly I have no idea…I was just hoping to hear her out and get some idea as to her reasoning for saying those things” Mike said. Lucas then said, “Mike…you can’t just go in there and not know what to say…you need to come up with some thoughts like obviously if she wants to fix things, which it sounds like she does, she will probably say she said those things in the heat of an argument so you need to have a good response for that” Will then said, “This really is not that complicated, they both honestly just need to tell each other that they still love each other because they clearly do and just admit that all of this was one big misunderstanding” “Will, you just don’t hear these things said about you come out of nowhere, these are thoughts that obviously came from somewhere and I want to know where” Mike said. Lucas then said, “Okay that’s good, then ask her where those thoughts came from. At least you will have some answer then and you can go from there.” 

Before they can continue, Max and El come through the door and Mike was honestly standing there speechless for a bit. He could see it in El’s eyes that she was either super tired or had been crying or both but she is wearing one of Mike’s favorite outfits of hers and he can’t help but think she is just the most beautiful girl in the world. Eventually though he is brought back down to earth rather quickly with all of his friends watching. Max was smirking in the background knowing that her outfit idea was working as intended. Mike then turned to everyone and then said, “So not to be rude or anything but I would appreciate some privacy here so maybe I will step out with El” “No…wait just use our room and then shut the door…we will wait out here” Max stated. “Okay that works I guess…” Mike said as he and El went off into the room and shut the door behind him. Max, Lucas, and Dustin quietly put their heads up against the door and positioned themselves to listen in as much as they could. Will loudly whispered to them, “You people are disgusting you should get back here!” Dustin then followed up with a whisper of his own “Get off your high horse Byers and come over here, you know you want to…” Will is not proud of this but he figured if everyone else is doing it he also joined them.

Meanwhile in the room Mike leaned against the wall and El sat at the foot of the bed. After what felt like a long silence (in reality it was maybe like 15 seconds) Mike finally broke the ice and said, “Okay El, you wanted to talk so I am here” El was expecting it but was still kind of taken by surprise by his cold tone. She then said, “I just wanted to say that everything I told you that day…” at this point El started to feel tears start to come down her face remembering what she did that night but she had to continue on because she wanted to tell Mike that none of it meant anything so she continued on, “…I did not mean a single word of it Mike. I only said those things because I thought that…that you were seeing another girl behind my back and I wanted to hurt you like I thought you hurt me and I stupidly came up with that…please believe me Mike I did not mean a single word of it and none of it is true I only said it because I stupidly wanted to hurt you because I thought you hurt me…” El is full on crying now. She did not want to but she can’t help it but despite that she kept going, “I made a mistake and wanted to hurt you so I brought up things you told me you were insecure about in the past and used it against you in an attempt to make you feel bad…yes it is as bad as it sounds… but please believe me that I meant none of it Mike, I love you so much and you are the best boyfriend that I…”before she could continue Mike did interject and said, “Ex-boyfriend, you ‘dumped my ass’…remember?... or is that one of the many things you did not mean to say?” The word ex-boyfriend just destroyed El because she did not want any of this but it was all her doing so she can’t expect Mike to understand.

Mike then tried to change his tone from a more cold tone to a more sad one because even though he was upset with El he hated to see her hurt and crying ( _I mean he still loves her a lot_ ) so he then says in a less cold tone, “Okay El lets say that you are right and you wanted to say those things to hurt me in an argument…I still am a believer that those words people say in anger have some grain of truth to them because they did come from their head…maybe part of you unintentionally believes those things…maybe you actually do think some of those things?” “Mike please forget everything I said to you that night…I know I messed up but I promise you that I meant none of those things” El pleaded as she was still crying. Mike then asked her one more question that was on his mind, “El I want to believe you but I am just not sure if I can get all those things you said to me out of my head…but one question that has been eating away at me is this, did you date me because you thought it would be a safe choice to date a nerd like me because you know that I would never be able to hurt you or replace you because ‘no other girl would have batted an eye at me’ as you kindly put it?” El was shocked at the question and just processed it for a bit. She eventually said, “Mike where would you even get such a crazy idea? Of course not and I never meant that no girl would have ever been interested in you because that’s not true because I know of at least one girl who is, me!” Mike just responded with, “ El I have been trying to figure out why you said those things and honestly it seemed like one of the most plausible answers to it that’s why I asked” “There is no answer for it because none if it is true Mike, please stop looking for some hidden meaning where there is none…I know I messed up but that’s all there is to it, I stupidly wanted to hurt you and that’s why I said all of those things there really is no hidden meaning behind it so please stop torturing yourself looking for one!” They both were quiet for the next 30 seconds. Mike then finally said, “El, I really want to believe you but I just can’t get the image of you screaming all those things to me out of my head…it’s like seared into my brain and I really would do anything I could to get it out of my head…if I could go back in time to Thursday night and just send you a detailed explanation of my plans for that evening I would just so I would not have to have gone through that.” El didn’t say anything because she honestly did not know what to say, she explained it as best as she could and it broke her heart that she said such cruel things to the man that she loves to the point where that memory is permanently scarred into his mind. Mike then broke the silence with this, “I just need a bit of fresh air”. He then immediately pulls open the door and unsurprisingly 4 of his friends came tumbling to the floor as he rapidly pulled the door open. He did not say anything and stepped over them and started walking out. Lucas, Dustin, And Will go after Mike and Max immediately goes to console a crying El. 

Later that day, El spent the afternoon with Max essentially just watching movies and laying low as she was still exhausted from her talk with Mike plus the multiple nights of little sleep. Max then asked El, “Do you need me to come over again tonight?” El looked at her and said, “No Max I can’t ask you to keep doing that. You should stay here with Lucas” “Well there is no way I am letting you stay alone tonight so at the very least can you sleep here on the couch? Is that too uncomfortable?” Max asked. El did think about it and she realized she needed to sleep and there was no way she could go to her bed where she spent every night with Mike, the same bed where they shared many intimate moments. It is probably wise to take up Max’s offer El then responded with, “If you don’t Mind I would really appreciate it Max, I don’t think I could sleep alone in my apartment” “I would never mind El” Max responded with. Eventually Lucas was leaving their apartment and heading out to meet the other boys and Max and El stayed home. EL and Max continued to watch TV until El was getting tired around 9pm. It was early but it made sense since she barely slept at all the past couple nights. El then had some of her own insecurities come in again since Mike was out with his friends. “Do you think Mike will actually now try to find another girl?” El asked Max. Max laughed a little and responded with, “Listen El…obviously you know we all listened in to your chat with Mike today and from what I can make out I think he will definitely come around, you just got to give him a bit of time and space. Trust me no man would bother talking through all those things with you unless he actually really does love you.” El then thought about her own insecurities and how it got her into this mess in the first place when she thought Mike was cheating on her. She then dropped the subject with Max and told her, “You know what Max, I am actually really tired…sorry its only 9 but would you mind if I called it a night?” “Of course not, let me grab you a blanket and a pillow” Max said. El responded with a “Thank you”

* * *

\---At the bar---

Mike was on his 3rd drink sitting at a booth at a nearby bar by Dustin’s and Will’s Apartment and its in walking distance to everyone’s place. Mike had already stopped by his apartment to pick up a few items and stay with Dustin and Will again because there is no way he could stay somewhere that constantly reminded him of El. Dustin then broke Mike’s train of thought and jokingly said, “Mike since you are technically single for a bit even though you don’t want to be, squeeze in some rebound action I mean when will you ever get this kind of an opportunity?” Mike just looked at him and said, “Okay I would never do that first of all since I am very much in love with El but even if I was not, it’s not like I am in a position to just pick up girls” “Mike, you are like taller than most of the people in this place…take it from an average height dude you are not in a bad starting spot” Dustin responded. Mike then said, “I really don’t think it works that way” Dustin being on his 4th drink takes it as a challenge and leaves the booth leaving the other 3 laughing. “So you think Dustin will actually get a girl’s number or something” Lucas said. Will then responded with, “Depends on who he asks I suppose.” 

After like 20 minutes of talking Dustin comes back to the table with a girl much to the surprise of the table. He is standing at the edge of the booth with a relatively attractive girl and the other 3 guys are shocked for a bit…until she starts talking. “So, is this your tall friend?” the girl says looking at Mike. “He’s kind of cute, you were right!” she says which causes Mike to send an angry glare to Dustin. The girl then asks Mike to dance and Mike politely says, “You seem like a nice girl but I already have a girl that I very much am in love with but my friend here is single” gesturing at Dustin. After that the girl just left and Mike then asked Dustin, “Dustin what the fuck…why are you trying to set me up?” Dustin then said, “Mike I was not going to actually set you up. I just wanted to prove to you that girls think tall guys are hot…Obviously I would never let you do anything with another girl…El is my friend too you know…I just wanted to prove you wrong from earlier and prove that I was right as always!” Mike just looked at Dustin realizing he is clearly not sober, so he just tells him to sit down. Mike then feels his phone buzz in his pocket and sees a couple of messages from El. Maybe it’s the drinks talking but he actually responds to her messages and tries to explain that he does still love her but that he is working on trying to get the image of her saying all those things out of his head. He also tells her to go to sleep because he remembered how tired she looked. She looked gorgeous but still tired he thought. After he sent those messages, he turned off his phone since he was at 5 percent battery life. After another half hour all four of the boys leave and then go to sleep for the night. 

* * *

\---At Lucas and Max’s Apartment---

El was laying there on the couch of Max’s apartment. She attempted to sleep at 9pm and that was almost 90 minutes ago. Her eyes literally hurt when she blinked so she was hoping to get a decent night’s sleep…or at least that her body will pass out from exhaustion and force her to sleep. She just keeps going back to the conversation she had with Mike. She knew they both had some insecurities but when he believed that she was using him as a safety boyfriend because she knew that he was a huge nerd and would never leave her, it broke her heart not because any of it was true but because of how little he thought of himself. It also did not help that she was the one who helped caused those insecurities to arise in him. She picked up her phone and just wanted to send him a message that can hopefully continue to get her point across because she refuses to give up and she sure as hell does not want her relationship with Mike to end, especially not like this. She just sent two messages that go like this:

**El:** Mike, even though you probably don’t believe me…please know that every date, every hug, every kiss, every memory we shared over the course of these past 7 years was me choosing to be with you because I love you not because I thought of you as some loser or some sort of safe choice

**El:** I’m sorry for ruining everything…

El put her phone down not expecting any answer from Mike. As she was dozing off a few minutes later her phone did vibrate a couple of times and much to her surprise and she grabbed her phone and saw a couple of messaged from Mike…she immediately opened them and saw:

**Mike:** El, I really do want to believe you but I just can’t get the thought of you basically confirming my worst fears about us right to my face out of my head just yet. 

**Mike:** You are the most important person in the world to me and I love you more than anyone else on this earth. I think that is what makes this hard. Please try to get some sleep you looked really tired earlier today. I promise I won’t ignore your calls anymore (super mature on my part btw…sorry about that). I love you, goodnight

El felt tears come down her face but for the first time in a while they were accompanied by a slight smile and not complete sadness. It had felt like forever since Mike genuinely told her “I love you” even though its only been like 2 calendar days. It meant the world to her and she was definitely going to do everything she can to make Mike believe that none of what she said was even remotely true. She sent off a couple quick messages to him and then put her phone down for the night. She eventually fell asleep a couple minutes later but the messages went like this:

**El:** Mike, you are the most important person in the world for me too and I love you too

**El:** I am going to prove to you that I never meant a word of what I said that night no matter what it takes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So obviously everything is not fixed but I think we are finally at a turning point in this story where things will slowly but surely start going up (hopefully without any setbacks but you never know). I tried to make it so in the beginning of this chapter, the lack of communication was causing Mike’s thoughts to think the worst possible things and I personally can relate to it. I also thought it would be cool to have the whole party be involved in some capacity. I really hope you enjoyed this and hopefully are able to stick around for future chapters. As always feedback is very much appreciated as I want to know if it was a good chapter or if there were things I can improve on. The worst is no comments because then I have no idea if it was good or if I messed some things up so any comment is appreciated.


	5. This has to work out, right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El wants to make things right and return to normal, but will Mike let that happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologize for getting this out much later than I wanted, I was super busy and could not find the time but better months later than never I suppose. Hopefully you all will like this chapter and I will for sure use some of this holiday season to write the next chapter too since I will have some time.

It was Thursday morning, 6 days after her incident with Mike last Friday, and El woke up alone in her bed for the fourth morning in a row. It was not like Mike was too far away, he eventually decided that he can’t keep crashing on Dustin and Will’s couch so he decided on Sunday night to crash on his own couch instead and has continued sleeping there ever since. El had a similar realization when she decided to not bother Max anymore and just decided to stay in her own apartment. El has been keeping busy with school since Monday but that has not stopped her from trying to fix things with Mike. El felt like she was making progress sometimes but still Mike never got past short answers and then he continued to spend the rest of the night alone. She picked up her phone and looked at the time and realized she needed to get up out of bed if she did not want to have to rush to class. 

She got dressed for a day of class, nothing fancy because it was a chilly fall day just some pants and a sweatshirt and fixed her hair so it was “presentable” according to her. She then heads to the kitchen and Mike is there. She started a pot of coffee as she needs it to function in the morning and in the meantime she was kind of taken aback by how he looked. He usually wakes up around the same time as her on Thursday’s but he looks like he has been out and came back. He is also wearing a sweatband on his head as well as some athletic shorts and a tighter fitting t-shirt than she is used to seeing him in. Also she noticed a slight glow on him and El thinks to herself “I must be imagining things…” but its hard to ignore. She always thought Mike looked good but something about this made him look so…”yummy” El thought to herself not being able to come up with a better term to describe him.

He was setting down a backpack, which normally wouldn’t be strange but this was a new bag from his usual school one. She finally realized she has just been staring at him for like 20 seconds while he has been going about his business. El has been struggling with the whole situation but she has been trying to put on a more positive face in front of Mike instead of being a “sulking and whiny mess” as Max put it so kindly. She hops up on the counter and starts gently swinging her legs back and forth and asks Mike, “So I take it you were up early…where did you go?” Mike keeping his eyes on what he is doing just let out a one word answer, “gym”…El then looked at him slightly confused and asked, “Since when did you go to the gym?” Mike keeping his answers brief and still minimizing his eye contact just said, “I started Tuesday…figured I should do something about being horribly out of shape…” El is not against any positive changes that Mike wants to make but she can’t help but feel that this has something to do with their misunderstanding last week. She would hate for Mike to do all this because he thinks he is not good enough and would rather him do things because he wants to. She saw that the coffee was done and filled up her cup and hopped back up to where she was sitting on the counter. She then asked, “That’s great you are trying something new Mike but this doesn’t have anything to do with what happened late last week right?” Mike’s head finally immediately turned to her and he said in a kind of stern tone, “No its not!” ( _even though it totally was_ ) ”I just felt like I… wanted to improve my health…you know…for the better…don’t want to die early and all that…” He said with some gaps in his sentence. El then raised her eyebrows at him while taking a sip of her coffee kind of realizing he is clearly lying (it is something she picked up rather quickly since Mike is not the best liar…he always sounds like he is coming up with something on the spot when he is lying) but she figured she did not want to push the issue and just said, “Okay whatever you say, you know I will always support you so I am happy you found something new to try…Just know I love you…gym or no gym” She then got up off the counter, poured the rest of her coffee in a to-go cup, and decided it was time for her to head out so she won’t be late. She went up to Mike and grabbed the side of his head to pull it down to her and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and said, “Bye, I’ll see you later today okay!” Mike just responded with a half-smile but didn’t say anything then turned around to continue his business. 

* * *

\---Previous Monday (3 days after their incident)---

Mike was meeting up with Dustin to start working on their next project for school so he wanted to leave early. He spent the night back at his apartment but decided that he will stay on the couch. He was still dealing with the fallout of the weekend’s events and also wanted to make sure El was comfortable so he offered to take the couch. In his mind he woke up earlier to work on school stuff but deep down he knows that he did so just to leave and avoid any possible interaction with El. It is not like she and him were arguing with each other or anything, he just so happened to be dealing with some of the insecurities he has had for all of these years and they all came out in force last Friday night ( _so no big deal!_ ). 

Mike got some fresh air and decided to walk for an extra half hour outside going around the block a few times to pass some time and clear his head a bit since he knew there was no way Dustin would be awake. He eventually made it to Dustin and Will’s apartment and texted Dustin to open up. After a few minutes of standing outside the door he figured he was still sleeping and not wanting to stand outside in the hallway much longer he decided to text Will and see if he would at least let him in. Luckily for him Will was awake and let him in.

Mike was greeted with a, “Mike, what are you doing here like a half hour earlier than usual? You Know Dustin is not up a minute before he needs to be?” “Well, I wanted to get a head start on our next project so I figured I would come a bit earlier and see what Ideas he had.” Mike responded with. Will just looked at him with a blank stare, knowing that this was obviously to do with the fight he and El had so he wanted to dig further. Will asked, “Are you sure that’s why or is this because you still can’t talk things through with your girlfriend?” “Ex-girlfriend remember? She dumped me” Mike quickly stated in a serious but somber tone. Will just looked at his best friend and said, “Mike, for being one of the smartest people I know you sure are stupid. Obviously she never meant to break up with you the instant she found out it was all big misunderstanding…like you have to see that I know you aren’t that blind” Mike stared at him for a few seconds and just said, “Well…its not like she un-dumped my ass…so technically we are broken up as of now by definition…right?” “Mike…does she have to come to you and just say I take back my dumping you because I was mistaken? Will that fix things? Because I can just text her now to do that and will that make everything better for you so we can all move on with our lives?” Mike was standing there silently when all of a sudden a creaking door sound was heard by both of them.

Dustin walked out of his room only wearing boxers and a white t-shirt and just walked past them both to make some coffee and microwave a frozen breakfast burrito. “Good morning sunshine!” Will said to Dustin, to which he just responded by giving him the finger. “Good sign for how your project talk will go Mike” Will said to Mike laughing afterwards. “Dustin, can you please explain to our dear friend here that his girlfriend did not actually dump him and that he shouldn’t be too worried and go back to enjoying his life?” Will said. Dustin after putting his burrito in the microwave turned around and said, “Mike, did she actually use the terms I am breaking up with you?” “Well in a way yes, to quote her she said ‘I am dumping your ass’ if that helps clarify things” Mike responded. “Hmm…Will I am going to have to go with Mike on this one, seems pretty cut and dry” Dustin said. “Well then you both clearly are idiots when it comes to relationships…It is pretty obvious she misunderstood and for whatever reason felt that Mike was cheating on her…even though you and I know he would never to such a thing…but that’s not important right now. She clearly loves him that’s why she was hurt and said those things and ‘dumped’ him but as soon as she found out it was a misunderstanding she clearly felt really bad about it and wanted to make things right.” Will stated. 

The microwave beeped in the background during the silence and Dustin grabbed his burrito, meanwhile Will added, “I mean if I can see it and you both are relatively intelligent people why can’t you?” Dustin took a bite of his burrito and looked at Mike and said, “Listen, what Mike needs now is to step his game up…he clearly feels like El could do better, which we all know she can, no offense Michael but she is hot and you are…well…” Mike responded with a glare to him but didn’t say anything to dispute it. “Anyways, that’s not important…what you need to do as I said is step your game up…become someone that a hot girl would want to be seen with. First of all you need to lose this lanky slender tall dude look…go lift some weights for god sake” Dustin said. Mike interjected with, “You are one to talk Dustin, your gut is starting to hang out of your shirt a little bit...” Will then interrupted them both and said, “God you both are so fucking stupid, she loves you, you love her, just talk to her!” Mike briefly stared at Will and turned back to Dustin. “Mike I am trying to help you out here so don’t insult me…just think about it…would you be questioning this if you were in better shape? Maybe dress better too…these baggy graphic tee shirts are doing you no favors buddy” Will actually hated to agree with Dustin right now but turned to Mike and said, “he is kind of right about your wardrobe Mike” “Exactly!...so our school comes with admission to the rec center gym, just go there and pump some iron buddy…also start dressing better, and just attempt to be someone that a hot girl would want to be with” “Mike…don’t listen too much to Dustin, El loves you and she has for a long time, do you honestly think she would stick around if she was not into you?” Will stated. Mike then responded with, “I don’t know Will…Dustin buddy you might be onto something here.” Will then just rolled his eyes frustrated that no one will listen to him as always and just turned his back and started taking a few steps away. Dustin said, “Now you are getting it. Now let me put on some pants and lets head off to school." 

“Mike, I am not opposed to working out and dressing better and doing all these things but do them for the right reasons, like your health or your confidence, but don’t do it because you think it will make El like you more because guess what buddy she already does and you might just ruin things by drastically changing yourself to what you think she wants” Will said. Mike responded with, “I am doing it for those reasons too but I am not going to discount that added benefit…besides don’t you want to take me clothes shopping finally?” “Uhhh…Mike I have only been asking you for YEARS!…of course we will and we won’t take Dustin because he has worse taste than you quite frankly” Dustin came back, gave Will the finger and said, “Okay Mike, lets go” and they both left.

* * *

\---Present Day---

El tries not to take it too hard when Mike is not as affectionate to her as he was before this whole incident. “I mean after all it was my fault for creating this situation…right? I can’t expect him to pretend it never happened…” El tells herself. She realized her phone was buzzing and was hopeful it might be Mike with a nice message. She picks it up and reads the message,

 **Max:** El…

 **Max:** Where are you?!?!?!?

 **Max:** I woke up before I had to just to meet you here…

El immediately realizes that she forgot that she wanted to meet up with Max before school started at the coffee shop by her apartment but luckily its only a couple minutes of walking to get there so she immediately grabs her stuff and heads over there before Max starts to get even more upset.

As El walks in she sees Max smiling and waiving at her to come to her table but first she places her drink order. She sets her bag on the floor next to her chair and keeps one foot around the strap of her backpack to prevent people from running off with it and then finally looks at Max and says, “Sorry I was a bit late, I completely forgot about us meeting this morning before class.” “How could you forget about me El…I thought we were like best friends?” Max responded with in a semi-sarcastic tone. “God forbid I start listing off all the times you were late…” El said. “Okay fine, lets just say we are even then…so what made you forget about this?” Max asked. El turned her smile into a frown and sighed and just said, “Well you know how things have been with Mike. Well he isn’t showing he is mad or anything he is just acting completely distant and quiet since the whole thing went down…and yea I suppose technically this was all my fault…but that does not mean it doesn’t hurt that when I kiss him he doesn’t kiss back or when I tell him I love him he just nods and stuff like that…Max…I don’t know what I have to do to fix it because I don’t know how long I can keep this up without just snapping at him and telling him that yes I messed up but can’t you see it was just a misunderstanding and can’t we just go back to normal?” 

Max looked at her friend and said, “El…I still don’t know what his issue is, I thought since you both are back to living together after a couple of days apart things would be back to normal. Did you want me to knock some sense into him for you El?” El just looked at her and said, “I don’t want to make things worse so I don’t know what having you yell at him would accomplish.” “Well…I would kindly remind him that you have an awesome, kind, and not to mention totally beautiful girl that loves you and I don’t know why you can’t just appreciate that, because lets be honest he should consider himself lucky to have that…” Max said. El then shared a look of frustration and said, “See Max…I think that's the problem right there! He doesn’t think he is good enough because everyone keeps on reminding him of how lucky he is and stuff…like I am not just as lucky to have him…it gets annoying for me even so I can only imagine how hard it must be for him to listen to that all the time.” Max looked at El for a few seconds before finally saying, “El, you do know we are like at least half joking when we say that stuff…right? like I know that Mike is a good guy I mean we are all friends.” El looked down at her lap for a second then lifted her head back up and said, “Max I know but I am sure it does not help when he hears people think that somehow I am way out of his league even though its far from the truth…like how many girls have we known throughout high school and even in college where guys just pretend to like them for a little while and just use them for a quick hook up and then never speak to them again? Or how many of those same girls have had men cheat on them or hit on their friends and stuff?” “Well…quite a few…” Max quickly said and El continued on, “Exactly, so I don’t understand why having a boyfriend who actually loves you and spends time with you and not to mention who I think is very attractive…I mean I am not super shallow where I would only date tall guys but I will say it does get me excited to have to stand on my tip toes just to even kiss him…so yea I don’t think he is out of anyone’s league let alone mine and I don’t want him to feel like he is so much worse than me.” 

Max sat there for a bit then finally broke the brief silence with, “Okay I get where you are coming from so what should you do now? So let me get this straight…he said he is okay but he clearly is not because he barely talks to you and is pretty distant?” “Yea basically…its pretty frustrating I wish he would at least tell me what is bothering him specifically so I can help him out.” El said while trying to hide her frustration with the situation. Max had a small smirk on her face and said, “Well…have you tried to…you know…how do I put this…put on a cute outfit and nice underwear and gone up to him and sat on his lap and put on the moves El? I mean you are a pretty girl…trust me no guy will resist that!” El didn’t even respond and just stared at her friend but eventually said, “No…I wanted to give him some space plus it’s been almost a week since he has even stayed in the same bed with me.” “Well…step one here is ditch the whole sweatshirt and sweatpants look you have going on here when you go home and just give it a shot…you never know!”, Max said. 

El raised her eyebrow at her and said, “Max, first of all sweatpants are comfortable especially when I have to go to class all day and second Mike never had any issues with my outfits before so I don’t think that is the issue here.” “Well I’m just saying maybe some good old fashioned love making will bring the spark back, like what better way to let your man know you think he is attractive than that?” Max responded with. El sat quiet for a bit thinking that she does kind of have a point. El then said, “Well how about this, I want to actually spend time with Mike too since it has been like a week since I even got to enjoy a meal with him. He usually does this but I think I am going to have to plan us a date night, since tomorrow is Friday and he can’t use the ‘I have school I need to sleep’ line on me. I will even text the boys to make sure Mike is not hanging out with them and if they are to reschedule. And yes…I will take your advice and put on a cute outfit and show him just how much I want him and only him too…” “Look at you taking charge like this!…I haven’t seen you talk like this ever. I kind of like it!”, Max said. El let out a small chuckle and said, “Well I suppose since I screwed this up I better be the one to fix things! Anyways I need to get to class and so do you right? So I will talk to you later then and I’ll keep you updated!” Max smiled at her and said, “See you later and let me know what you come up with for date night!” “Will do!” El said and she left for class with a more positive attitude than she has had in the past week. She is determined to get things back to normal and have some fun with it too! 

* * *

\---Later that Evening---

El was back from school and since Mike does not get back until later in the day she had some time to plan for her date tomorrow that she was going to essentially drag Mike to this even if he was not in the mood to go. Her goal was to show Mike that she wants to be with him and that she will always choose him despite what she said during her rage fueled outburst last week ( _that she still cringes about when she thinks about_ ). Mike was usually the one to always plan date nights and he would always think of things El would like so this time El wanted to return the favor. So then the question El asks herself is, “Hmm…what type of an evening would Mike enjoy?”.

She had a couple of hours to think about it so she tried to dig deep and thought about what Mike would like. El thinks to herself “What would Mike want to do…” and remembers that he really doesn’t like to go out too much or likes large groups of people so maybe something like a quiet dinner and a home activity might be more in line with what he would want rather than going out somewhere for a long time. El also thought about going back to Hawkins and having a date at Benny’s where they met for the first time, but that would require quite a bit of travel and they would probably come back super late around the time that Mike came back last week ( _El still cringes whenever that night comes up in her head_ ). It would not be a problem to come back that late but El really wanted to get… _intimate_ …with him and nothing will kill a mood like a long tiring drive late at night. Which reminds her, “How will I get Mike to go from barely touching me and sleeping on the couch to not wanting to keep our hands off of each other?” She remembers back to senior year of high school where she wanted to surprise Mike with a costume from one of his favorite movies, Star Wars. She knows he had always kind of had a crush on Princess Leia so on his birthday that year El ordered the infamous slave Leia outfit and remembered just how much he loved it. “Maybe I can still fit into it…its only been a couple of years and I haven’t gotten fatter…I think…” El thinks to herself. The problem is the outfit is in Hawkins in her closet at home. Luckily she has the day off since it is Friday while Mike is off to school so she could spend her day getting it while he is gone and he won’t be able to tell where she went. But another problem…Mike is the one who has the car and he would definitely know something was up if she asked to take it. She needed help from her friend so she picked up her phone and sent her a message:

 **El:** You wouldn’t happen to be up for a trip to Hawkins for a second Friday in a row would you?

 **Max:** Why? Wheeler going back to see his lover? 😛

 **El:** 😠not funny…

 **Max:** I mean I am available tomorrow but why do you need to go?

 **El:** Remember I wanted a special night with Mike? Well…I might need a special costume that I only broke out once before…

 **Max:** OMG look at you spicing things up 🔥

 **Max:** Get it girl!

 **Max:** Of course I would love to help out for something like that, plus it gives me something to do tomorrow!

 **El:** Thanks Max! Also I need you to drive 😀

 **Max:** Fine…I suppose I can

 **Max:** We just can’t leave super early

 **Max:** A queen needs her beauty rest!

 **El:** Thanks! see you tomorrow!

El put her phone away and decided to figure out the rest of her evening. She plans on calling up one of the better restaurants in town and reserving a table for two. After dinner though she wants a chance to cuddle up next to Mike and get close to him in order to get them both in the mood for spending the night together so she figured since she is going for a star wars theme why not watch the movie where her special costume inspiration came from. The problem is she does not have a copy of the movie and Mike keeps his special box set tucked away at home in Hawkins only to be broken out for special occasions. Lucky for her she has a certain step brother that might be able to help her out here, so she texts him and asks him this:

 **El:** Will, need your help!

 **El:** do you happen to have a copy of Return of the Jedi?

 **Will:** Uhhh…does a bear shit in the woods?

 **Will:** Why wouldn’t I?

 **El:** No need for the attitude

 **El:** Can I come get it tomorrow to borrow?

 **Will:** Why? Doesn’t your boyfriend have it?

 **El:** His is back in Hawkins and I kind of need it for him

 **El:** trying to plan a special night for him because…

 **El:** Well you know so no need to explain

 **Will:** Of course sis anything for love and more importantly anything for you!

 **El:** Thanks!

 **El:** Also could you do me a big favor and make sure none of the guys make plans with him tomorrow night?

 **El:** I really need this to work out

 **Will:** Of course, I 100% agree this will be great for both of you so I will spread the word to Dustin and Lucas

El was glad to take care of that because it will prevent Mike from saying he has plans with his friends. One last thing she did was call the restaurant and set up a reservation for two at Osteria Rago which is a nice Italian restaurant near campus. So for now everything is in order…she just had to get Mike to go…easy right?

* * *

About an hour later Mike came home and set his things down. El was waiting on the couch for him to get home and ask him to go on this date she worked on and planned out. Once Mike’s hands were free El smiled and got up and walked up to him and gave him a hug. For his part, Mike did hug back, albeit with only one hand on her back and the other at his side. El didn’t let it get to her so she leaned against the wall and said confidently, “So Mike…I know things haven’t been the best for us this past week…to put it mildly…so we are going to go on a date tomorrow!” Mike looked at her kind of confused and said, “A date?” El, trying not to show any sadness at his responses does her best to keep up a brave face and confidently says, “Yes a date! A romantic one at that too!” “Aren’t they all romantic El?” Mike raised his eyebrows and responded in a sarcastic tone. El will gladly take the sarcastic tone because it sure beats the mopey and sad tone he has had and she was kind of glad to see a hint of the real Mike in there (who sometimes is too sarcastic for his own good). El then smiled and responded with, “Nope! Some are friendly, some are casual, but ours…ours will be a romantic one!” Mike then turned his head and started walking towards the kitchen and said, “I don’t know El, Dustin and I are kind of busy with school and it might run late, and I might just be tired after…you know?” El then said knowing that Will and most likely Dustin will cover for her, “Well I know that Dustin will be busy with Will tomorrow evening because Will told me he had plans with him so you should have time after school…” El was upset that he would reject her offer like that but she did see this coming and had a plan for this so she broke out her semi sad face and grabbed his arm and turned him around to look at her while she was frowning at him with sad puppy dog eyes and said, “Please Mike…just do this for me?” Mike hated this look from El, mainly because he could rarely ever deny her when she got like this ( _and she knew this too_ ) so naturally he succumbed to her and said, “Fine…I will do it for you…you really can be pushy sometimes you know that right?” El then smiled at him, pulled herself up to his cheek and gave it a small kiss and said, “I know, but you can’t blame me for using what works!” Mike didn’t say anything else and just walked to the bathroom and went to get ready for bed. El did the same and for yet another night Mike did not come to bed with her…but that is okay because there is no way El will let that happen tomorrow!

* * *

\---4 years ago---

It was Junior year for Mike and he and El were seemingly happy together. He is going to go meet up with El after her last class so he can accompany her home as he always does everyday that he is able to. El’s last class is Math which she happened to share with his worst enemy since Elementary school, Troy. To avoid any unnecessary confrontations Mike usually waits a few minutes before walking to class since Troy usually runs out of the last class to meet up with his group of idiots. Unfortunately for him he peeks through the classroom door window and sees only El and Troy left in class and it looks like he is just bothering El while she tries to gather all her things into her backpack. Mike got closer to the door and opened it slightly to listen in. He knows its not healthy to do this but curiosity got the best of him and he could not help himself and overheard the conversation.

“C’mon you know I would be able to rock your world sweetheart!” Troy said in a smug tone to El. El just looking down at her desk and concentrating on putting all her things away in her bag said, “Just leave me alone Troy I literally want absolutely nothing to do with you!” “Well, I sure would be a step up from that frog faced loser you call your ‘boyfriend’” Troy said while using his fingers to air quote the word boyfriend. “I say ‘boyfriend’ because I’m pretty sure him and your gay brother are getting it on all the time” Troy added. El was looking more frustrated but just wanted to leave now since she has all her things in order but added, “Don’t talk about my boyfriend and family members like that, got it?” “Oh sweet Jane…” Troy said, as he patted his hand on his belly said, “Frog face have abs like this? You can still keep pretending to date him or whatever, it doesn’t mean we couldn’t have some fun…no way he can please you like a real man like me could!” El usually would walk away at this point but frustration is getting the better of her. Troy continued on, “Did Wheeler and you even do it yet? I mean how could any girl even be into that scrawny loser? C’mon and step up to a real man! What is a fine girl like you even doing with him?” El finally snapped and said, “Listen do not talk about Mike like that in front of me, got it! He is kind and sweet and actually cares about me, maybe you would actually have a girlfriend if you were more like him instead of being the single loser you are…if you ask me he is the real man not you!” El was then about to walk away but Troy had to keep going, “I didn’t hear the word hot in your list of things about frog face, at least admit that he is some ugly nerd…I mean if that is what you are into then fine! But lets not pretend that any other girl would do what you did” El could not help herself getting the last word in and putting her foot down, “Guess what, I do find him incredibly hot, and if other girls don’t then its fantastic news for me since I get to have him all to myself!” El finally started to walk away but Troy grabbed her arm. At this point Mike is stepping in... He heard enough but as soon as someone touches El he will do whatever to protect her even if it means getting his ass kicked…but before he could do that, El gave Troy a solid kick in the shin which brought him to his knees and said, “Don’t ever put your hands on me you creep” and walked out of there. Mike saw El coming and pretended to just be arriving to avoid any awkwardness and continued on as they normally would. He was happy that she never gave into any of his advances and actually said things that reassured him that she does actually like him.

* * *

\---Present day (Around 4am Friday Morning)---

Mike has had many recurring flashbacks in his sleep this past week. They mainly centered around his insecurities and El’s outburst at him from last week. This time as he is sleeping he is tossing and turning remembering a day when Troy was confronting El in 11th grade. As he tosses and turns, starting to sweat and mumble under his breath as he sleeps on the couch, the scenes of both his memory form 11th grade and El’s rant at him from last week all come to a clash in his nightmares. He remembers the words Troy said and remembers hearing what El said to him and the lines keep going through his head on repeat!

“lets not pretend that any other girl would do what you did”

_“no girl in their right mind would have even batted an eye at you”_

“at least admit that he is some ugly nerd”

_“what type of girl besides me would deal with being with the biggest fucking nerd in Hawkins?”_

“What is a fine girl like you even doing with him?”

_“Everyone, even you, told me that I was out of your league”_

“C’mon and step up to a real man!”

_“maybe it is time I finally upgraded!”_

“no way he can please you like a real man like me could!”

_“You aren’t as good in bed as I told you before”_

Mike finally woke up and his head and back shot up as he was breathing heavily and was drenched in sweat. He couldn’t lay on this couch anymore. He had to get up and so he did. He looked at his phone and saw the time was 4:12AM. He slid on his pants that were near the sofa, put on a coat, grabbed his phone and keys and just left. He just could not take it anymore and just needed to get away and go…somewhere…anywhere…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter ends with Mike leaving abruptly early in the morning. Hopefully things will work out for these two (I mean it eventually will but there has to be some hiccups for a fun story right?). I really hope people are enjoying this and once again I apologize for the long delay but I will make sure there is not a huge gap until the next chapter. As always feedback is very much appreciated as I want to know if it was a good chapter or if there were things I can improve on. The worst is no comments because then I have no idea if I was on the mark or if I messed some things up so any comment is appreciated, good or bad!


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